The 4th!

We had a lovely celebration yesterday with my mom and her husband Ed and my brother Dominic. I made a delicious variation on a potato salad with a homemade BBQ sauce over spice rubbed chicken breasts. The BBQ sauce was excellent with a hint of chipotle....I never knew how easy it would be to make your own. The potato salad was roasted red potatos, with fresh, cooked green beans, a lemon/olive oil dressing topped with crumbled _______ (what do you think, if you guess you will win a small prize).

We were out untill near 11:00 PM shooting off fireworks and drinking rootbeer floats with our neighbors. It was really nice. It got cool enough where I had to cover the children with blankets for the show. Every year we are showered with lot's of fireworks from my friend who is head of TNT, we were spoiled again.

Today brings a warmer day. I will be cooking a dinner for Drew and his family as they adjust back to their normal life.

Photos from our night!

Congratulations to Lexi and her Mommy and Daddy!

Auction closed!

Lexi and her Mommy and Daddy were the highest bidders on the firework set.....Congrats and have a happy 4th to everyone.

Disneyland is like a well oiled machine.

Off we go!

Tomorrow we are leaving for 5 days at Disneyland/California Adventure. My mom is taking Alexia, Aden and myself and Carl will be "baching' it at home. Our rental van is slowly getting packed and the "kids" are excited!

If you know me well enough, you know I am not excited. A homebody by nature, the drive is not something I am looking forward to. I am sure once I get there, my mood will change but untill then...... Leave me a comment or 2 that I can use to get "amped" for my trip. I may even bring you back a souvenier!

Raffle will continue but.......

Drew and his family continue to hang out at LPCH at Stanford. It will be 4 weeks tomorrow. They are about as unhappy as their extended family and friends are, wanting to get this over with. Drew continues to heal and with his loving parents by his side, constantly, he is doing better. Our raffle for them will continue and we have sold so many tickets but I hesitate to stop it untill Drew goes home!

I am leaving town on Monday with my mom, daughter and son, therefore I am relinquishing my duties to a fabulous person, Gina!. If you would like to buy raffle tickets, get a emailed copy of the flyer or help in another way, please contact Gina at g.dyke@sbcglobal.net.

Other than that, we will continue our prayers and good thoughts for this wonderful family.

Items in the raffle are:

$100 Mikuni
$100 Ruth Chris Steak House
$100 The Waterboy
Gift Card at C Webb's Center Court Restaurant
personalized baby blanket with matching booties, made by Beth
$40 Gift Certifcate for Mary Kay

A raffle for a dear family!

Handmade, personalized baby blanket with matching booties donated by Beth



I have grown to care deeply about a family I met through the Hearts of Hope support group that I helped start. May 23rd, Drew, their four-year-old son, had complicated open heart surgery to repair a congenital heart defect at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. He had been there 12 days when they discovered that he had a wound infection where his surgical site is. The Doctor's are now saying he will be there an additional 2 weeks with heavy duty antibiotics. His mom and dad are there along with his 2-year-old sister, Ava. I am holding a raffle for Drew and his family. A few restaurants have donated gift certificates to raffle off including, Mikuni's, C-Webb's Center Court Restaurant, Ruth Chris's Steak House and The Waterboy. For those who live in and around Sacramento, know these are high-end restaurants and they feed you well. Raffle tickets are $10 each or three for $25. Please consider buying a raffle ticket or 2 or 3 to help this family as they endure this hurdle.

You can email me at cvboesen@comcast.net or call me at 916-799-2508.

A funny story and strawberries

St. Jude Medical® Mechanical Heart Valve

My mom took Aden, Lexi and I out for a bite yesterday. As we were sitting in our booth, I kept hearing a "beeping" noise. I could not figure out where it came from. We all checked our phones, purses for toys etc nothing. I was convinced that it was an alarm telling me that Lexi's, St. Jude Mechanical Valve, was failing or maybe it ran on batteries and they were dead. I freaked, to say the least. I asked the restaurant manager to figure out what that noise was and he did, the thermostat above our heads was running on low batteries. Panick Attack, ever had one?

On another note, I have found Farmer E Fo Lee, not far from my house is a little strawberry stand. $17.00 for a flat of the most delicious strawberries you have ever had.

Lot's and lot's of parties and a circus!

Oki doke, An interview I was a part of for the new PCV Surgeon the hospital is considering (more on that later), 2 B-day parties, a party at the ICU Doctor's house that Carl works with and throw in a circus and we had a full weekend!

Had to share!

Aden is a climber! At one of his 4 recent B-day parties.

Keep this family in your thoughts

Sweet Drew is on the slower recovery road after his repair. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Feel free to leave posts here for his family to read as I can print them off and take them to Stanford when i visit them on Wednesday.

Need some verification that I did the right thing.....

This morning I was at Target getting some presents for several Birthday parties Aden has over the next few days. I happened to be trailing (not intentionally) two moms (not together) who had children that looked to be about 4 years, with them. The children kept wondering off and the mom's were focused on what they were shopping for, not realizing they had "disappeared" for several minutes. Every time I saw these families there was a man with a cowboy hat and a cup of coffee (no cart) not far from where they were. He was watching the little girl with way too much interest, for my comfort level. I happened to be near them many times and he was always there. At one point he smiled at the little girl and gestured a "come here" sign with his hand. I know for a fact he wasn't with any of them. I did find a security guard and told him what I saw and he seemed to take me very seriously. I think I can be vrey observant most of the time and my "gut feeling" is usually right. I really hope that if something was about to happen, I prevented it.

Maybe my paranoia is coming from a book I am reading called The Shack. In any event, I hope I did the right thing..........

Assembly for Grandparents and Finals done!

Alexia is done with her finals and had a great semester. Today we went shopping at REI so I could use my many REI giftcards I received for my Birthday and then Alexia had to get bloodwork for her INR's.

Aden and the First Grade this morning performed for Grandparents and Parents. They did a assembly for 45 minutes including songs on the flute and many, many verses and songs in German (that in itself was breathtaking). It was a lovely day!

My friend, Andrea's, son is going in for his 3rd open heart surgery on Friday at Stanford. Please keep them in your thoughts, prayers or whatever you do that his surgery/recovery will be uneventful. Frank Hanley, MD will be doing the surgery and Andrea requested Rick Mainwaring, MD to assist. What a team!

They are a wonderful family! Please post some good thoughts on their blog, it would mean alot to them.

Weekend

We have had some very warm days here in Sacramento and most of the time we were in the pool, either here or in Aden's case, his friend's house. Jonah and family had a new pool put in equipped with waterfalls etc. He has had 3 playdates in a row, he is well loved by his friends. Carl put misters in our backyard, since most of the summer is spent there now it is really cool!

Lexi has been studying for finals that past week and is really stressed. Tomorrow is her last day of finals....wish her luck! She did have some time to take a dip in the pool.

Pools Open

Yesterday was the First Grade's trip back to the Farm to see Bella's new calf, Mona. Aden found a caterpillar and then we had a 4 hour hike in the 95 degree heat. It was a beautiful but hot day down by the American River. We were filthy dirty and spent by the time we got home.

Fortunately, Carl had our pool ready!!!!!!!!!!!

Birthday's, Mother's Day and School performances

Yesterday was Carl's b-day. For weeks I have been doing research on bikes. That was what I wanted to get for him. I decided to get the whole family involved and instead of buying smaller gift, we could all chip in on a amazing bike. So I started, College Cyclery, Performance Bikes and REI I finally decided to go with Performance. What a shop! Carl was thrilled and it is a 26 speed bike that is a gorgeous color green. After the bike was presented we got ourselves together and went to Aden's Spring Concert, these children are so talented! Then my mom and Ed took us to Taro's for dinner, which is our favorite place to eat out.



I received this morning this lovely card made by Aden (for Mother's day). We will be having salmon, rice pilaf and a fruit sald for dinner tonight and then onto celebrate my B-day tomorrow. I have a few friends and their children coming over tomorrow after school to have cake and just hang out. Alexia gave me a early B-day gift of a beautiful pair of heart shaped earrings from Sundance.

May is always such a busy month!

Cards!

I was so excited to receive my mail this morning! My dear friend Amber has started making cards and I put in my order! I ordered 20 cards with a variety of themes and got my first bunch today! What a treat. I cringe when I have to pay $4.95 for a boring greeting card at Target and will buy my cards from now on from Amber.

The photo above is my first bunch!

Have a great weekend........

Name these herbs, A Contest!!

Oki doki, time for another cooking contest. Above are 4 herbs. Whoever can name them all correctly (and in order from top to bottom) by Midnight May 8th wins a gift bag full of cooking stuff!


Guidelines

In event of a tie, I will randomly pick a winner!

Shipping is free, but I will not ship anywhere other than within the Continental United States and Hawaii.

Requirements & details:no blog required but you must leave an email address so I can contact you if you win.

You must leave your comment by 05/8/08

I will pick a winner early morning on the 9th of May, Good Luck!!

May Day Celebration at Camellia Waldorf School

The first Saturday of May is CWS's May Day Celebration. We have the traditional May Pole and a May Queen (this year my friend Lorraine). Each class performs for the May Queen and finally the 8th grade does the "weaving of the May Pole". When the celebration ends then it is time for homemade strawberry shortcake. On Friday I picked up 15 flats of organic strawberries from a local farmer. It was a beautiful day!

All hooked up!

Unhooking time will be 4:00PM today!