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).

Reflecting Back on 2010

I began writing this post in early January,  but as life does, the things that are worthy of blogging about sometimes leave little time to actually write!  My priorities changed greatly beginning with the hospitalization of my grandma on New Years Eve weekend, but more on that later....

2010 began with much excitement and promise.  Jeff and I were in escrow on our first home and eager to start tackling the project of our lives.  We originally started escrow in November and were supposed to close in December but as those of you have purchased a home before know, there were glitches.  We fell out of escrow due to a seller error and began the process again in December with a closing date set for early February.  When we were looking for homes we had our Bailey girl in mind at each house.  We wanted a house rather than a condo because we wanted room for our girl to run and play. We also knew that this would probably be the house we started a family in and did not want to raise children without an outdoor space.  Just a week before we were set to get the keys to our house, I came home from work on a Friday to find Bailey very sick.  We had a very difficult weekend with a dog that was in obvious discomfort and prior episodes indicated she may have a brain tumor.  Jeff stayed home on Monday so he could take her to the vet.  After a whole weekend of not sleeping and trying to keep Bailey comfortable, he fell asleep next to her on the floor while waiting for the vet appointment.  He awoke a few hours later to find her peacefully at rest.  I was a cat person my whole life and Bailey changed all that.  We know we want to get another dog someday but we aren't quite ready yet and we are very sad that Bailey never got to see her new house with a back yard.

Bailey while on a visit to my grandma's.  She loved that backyard!

On February 4th, 2010 we finally closed and got the keys to our house!  We tried for 6 months to buy a house and put in offer after offer but cash investors would scoop up houses in our price range the same day they were listed or we'd be competing against 40 other offers.  It was crazy!  We were even putting in offers on houses we didn't really like knowing our offer probably wouldn't get accepted anyway.  Thankfully our agent found this house which was a foreclosure  before it was even listed.  We took a look at it and it needed ALOT of work, but the price was right and although Mira Mesa was not where we intended to purchase (we were looking in Poway), I was familiar with the neighborhood as I worked at the school just up the street from the house for four years prior to entering the insurance world.  Also, our buddies the Colemans lived a short 1.9 miles away and our other buddies Mel B and Jenny Mae lived in an apartment in between us and the Colemans!  Our agent brokered a deal with the seller and he never even listed it.  It worked out perfectly!

The large, but fugly living room

The even fuglier kitchen, which had 3 different colored cabinets and pumpkin orange, peeling paint

The next several months consisted of heading to the house after work until 8 or 9 pm and spending every weekend there.  Jeff's Dad and Goldie came down to SD every weekend to help us and we would have been lost without them.  Not only did they make it fun to work on the house, but they were hard workers and knowledgeable.  Jeff's dad is very handy and Goldie has an eye for design and helped me with everything from curtains to where to put the furniture.  They really helped us transform that dump into a home.

Living room after

Kitchen after

We moved into the house the first week in April.  The house still had a lot of work to be done but it was livable at that point and it was so much easier to come home from work, work a few hours on the house and then go to bed then to drive back to the condo each night.  My Uncle Randy helped us out greatly during the week.  After working at his day job all day he would come over to the house and help us out for 3 or 4 hours each night.  I really enjoyed getting to spend the time with Randy and it was nice having an extra pair of hands.  One of the days in April that he was over helping paint the kitchen he informed me that he heard one of my other uncles, Steve, was pretty sick.  I had seen him in March at my grandma's 90th birthday and noticed he looked frail but didn't think too much of it.  It turns out that he had melanoma and it had spread very quickly throughout his body.  Just a month after being diagnosed with cancer, he passed away on May 5th, just one month away from what would have been his 55th birthday.  This came as a great shock to our family because it was so sudden and he was so young.  My Uncle was very much involved in the music business and also very active with several clubs and charities on the central coast.  His memorial service was held his birthday weekend in June followed by a celebration of life in which hundreds of people attended.  His death reminded me to make time for loved ones because our time here is limited.  It also reminded me that life is too short to be mad or angry at someone.  Steve and I missed nearly two years of time together due to a disagreement, 2 years I desperately wish I could do over.  It was my engagement which finally brought us back together.  I wanted him to attend my wedding and we were able to get past our disagreement and he did come and it meant the world to me.  He will always hold a place of honor in my heart.
 

Steven R. See 6/5/55 to 5/5/2010

The weekend after the memorial I, along with my BFF's family, hosted a baby shower for Rosa.  Saying Rosa comes from a large family is an understatement!  The shower had over 100 guests and we had to rent a hall in order to fit everyone.  The shower was a great success and baby girl Snowden really made out!  Unfortunately my camera was out of commission so I don't have many photos, but I was quite proud of myself for the garden party decor and how it all turned out (thanks to a great amount of help from Rosa's sisters).

Rosa (middle) and her sister Betty (left) and Carol (right) at the shower



Emma Carolina Snowden Ruvalcaba

It's a good thing we had the shower a month before Rosa's due date because miss Emma decided to make her entrance into the world just two weeks after the shower!  Emma is the first baby to be born into my group of friends and I am absolutely in love with her.  It's a lot of fun watching my bestie be a momma.  This little girls is very lucky and will no doubt be a wonderful human being, just like Rosa. 

In July I had to report to Jury duty.  For some reason I get called every year on the dot,  but I never get picked to be on a trial.  I always wondered what it was about me that always got me dismissed.  Typically I considered myself to be the most normal person in the jury pool.  There are always wackos and the excuses some people give to get out of jury duty can be quite interesting.  Well, for some reason I got picked to be on a 3 week civil trial about a boating accident involving a yacht.  I got picked even though I work in the insurance industry and had been in a boat accident before.  It was an interesting process and I actually proved to be a valuable juror.  Because of me, the defendant had to pay a lot less $.....but, most of the people I served with were idiots and if I am ever in the position of being on trial, I'd rather have a judge determine my fate rather than 12 peers aka morons.  I was shocked that they all had their minds made up before we even started deliberating and there were only a few that had an open mind regarding evidence and testimony.  Because of my knowledge of the insurance industry and law in general I was able to convince the jury to reach a more reasonable verdict.

My 'office' for 3 weeks in July

Summer really flew by.  We continued to do projects around the house but one highlight was going to see Elton John in concert.  He was amazing!  The best part is that he had just gotten over a stomach flu bug and had cancelled the previous concerts.  At one point in the concert he stopped, stood up and basically told us he had to take a break to poo!  Professional that he is, after about 10 minutes he came back and resumed like nothing had happened.  Seeing Elton was on my bucket list and I can proudly cross it off!

Sir Elton John

In September my cousin Amanda turned 30 and she did it in style.  Her uncle owns a fabulous house in Atascadero on top of a hill.  I guess the word house would be an understatement, we refer to it as The Villa and it is quite the party pad.  This is actually where Amanda had her wedding!

Chilling at the pool

Peter (middle) with Cynthia (left and his wife Crystal (right)

Enjoying warm summer temps, BBQ and booze

In November we joined the Colemans in Hawaii at their awesome time share on Oahu.  Won't go into too much detail as I wrote two blogs about it but Hawaii was definitely a highlight of the year!

Sunset from our Lanai

Sunset at Waikiki

It wasn't too long after Hawaii that the holidays arrived.  It was a lot of fun decorating the house for our first Christmas.  Christmas Eve Jeff and I went over to my grandmothers and my Uncle Mike had picked up a delicious prime rib dinner .  My mom asked me to buy a beautiful centerpiece to take over to my grandma's to help make things festive.  My grandma had been at the emergency room earlier in the day but still wanted us to come over.  I'm so glad I remembered my camera so I could take the picture below.  I wanted to take a picture with my grandma holding the centerpiece so I could send it to my mom for her to see, little did I know it would be the last time I saw my grandma outside of a hospital or hospice care.

December 24th, 2010.  Me and my grandma celebrating Christmas Eve.

Because it was our first Christmas in our new house we wanted to play host.  We had everyone over for Christmas dinner and had quite the spread.  The boys got their traditional Christmas boxers and the girls got the better end of the deal on the stockings (thanks to one Miss Goldie Boeder).  After dinner, presents  and many cocktails we were buzzed enough to not care whether it was age appropriate or not and put on Bad Santa.  Nick and Alex seemed to enjoy it.  I guess since we let them watch The Hangover Bad Santa was logically the next step in their corruption.

Christmas Goodies

 Boxers, cash and cocktails

Everybody's favorite Christmas Classic...Bad Santa

Because we're old and now wise enough to know that drinking a home is 1.  cheaper  2.  safer  3.  just as fun   We decided to stay in for New Years.  The Colemans and Jenny Mae came over and we played Just Dance and Michael Jackson and lots of board games and imbibed an insane amount of booze (that tends to happen when its free and you don't have to drive anywhere).  We pulled pretty much an all nighter and had a lot of fun.  I'm very grateful to have such fun friends nearby.  A good time is never more than 1.9 miles away!

Dancing to MJ on NYE

So that is the long and short of 2010.  In retrospect there were many sad events last year, but out of those sad events came a hearty appreciation for what we have.  Bailey gave me a new appreciation for dogs and in time we will get another.  We just aren't ready to replace Bailey girl just yet.   My Uncle's passing brought our family closer together and also brought many of Steve's friends together as well.  I always knew Steve was a special person but seeing the love that so many people had for him and actually meeting people whose lives he had changed really helped me realize that there is a lot of room for improvement in my life and what was a priority before is not necessarily a priority now.  Christmas Eve with my Grandma will always be a cherished memory and I am thankful that the last 10 years I was able to spend a lot of time with her.  I am also grateful that I could be with her when she needed me most.  2011 started off on a rough note with my Grandma passing away and just tonight I learned that my good friend Nate's dad passed away today from cancer.  Instead of thinking that the year is starting off on a bad note, I am just going to say that the world revolves around life and death and those we love are never really gone.  Those of you who know me well know I am not religious, but the words of Ecclesiastes 3 convey my thoughts better than anything I can come up with.  Let's just say its an awesome song by The Byrds...shall we (Turn, Turn, Turn)?

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

 There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

 a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

 a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

 a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

 a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

 a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

 a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.