Celebrating Mom's 70th Birthday!

Howdy Y'all

Today we threw my boss a retirement luncheon party. Calling all cowboys and cowgirls! All of us gathered up our western wear and came dressed for the occasion. We chose a western theme since he has often mentioned he wanted to retire and become a sheriff in a little town. We all enjoyed some yummy grub (baked potato bar & ice cream sandwiches for dessert) and a slide show that Amy put together. Wayne has always said after he retires his budget will be so tight that he will have to live off of Bush's bean and Easy Mac. So we bought him a case of each to get him started ;) After 30 years at Biola we are sure going to miss him! Click on the slide show below to see it bigger.

This week Biola welcomed the Class of 2013 (see video by clicking here)

Can it really be true that they were born in 1991??!! If you really want to feel old then check out the annual Beloit College Mindset List for your enjoyment (or despair):

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2013.php

Happy 70th Birthday Mom! Wishing you so many blessings from the Lord on this day. Thanks so much for all your love and care through out these years. You have been a shining example of what a godly woman, wife and mother should be. I am so glad we can all get together to celebrate you this weekend. Can't wait!!! Love you very much, Ruth

Celebrating Wayne's retirement after 30 years.

Another week has flown by! It was a full work week since our early summer Fridays have now ended. It was pretty busy with students finishing their registration and faculty getting back. Today the other managers and I worked from 9-3 answering lots of questions from the new incoming students and their parents. It was a new thing for us to be open on a Saturday. After work I had just enough time to run home change and drive to Brea for Wayne's retirement dinner. The celebration was at La Vie en Rose. The food was good and we had a nice time celebrating Wayne's 30 years at Biola. This is just the first of several celebrations. We are going to miss him!

Making Preserves With Summer Fruit

This weekend I made some preserves with the last of the apricots.

Cut the fresh fruit in pieces

Cook the fruit with sugar and a little water

Pour into sterilized jars

Enjoy!

The fig tree in the backyard is laden with fruit. A few days ago I picked some of the ripe figs. See more pictures by clicking here!

An Evening At The Hollywood Bowl

Last night I was invited by the Clines to go to the Tchaikovsky Fireworks Spectacular at the Hollywood Bowl. We had a picnic dinner together with a few other friends from church. And then it was time for the concert which was truly spectacular! The music performed by the LA Philharmonic was wonderful and the piano pieces by Mihaela Ursuleasa were amazing. It was funny to think about the only two other times I had heard this one music piece in this particular setting was Bugs Bunny playing the part of a conductor and Jose Iturbi in Anchors Away. To top off the evening there was the grand finale, the 1812 Overture, accompanied by fireworks and the USC Trojan Marching Band.

Happy Birthday Grace!!Wish we could spend it right there!! Love you very, very much... can't wait to celebrate when you get back tomorrow =)

Here's one for old times sake!!

Summer fruit & flowers in the garden
Another reason I love summertime? The goodness I can pick in the garden. After a stressful day at work I came home and did some picking around the garden. Dinner was tilapia with freshly picked red bell peppers and green beans. Next on my list making perserves with the figs I picked today!

The busy summer continues

From 2009 July 31 - Birthday celebration with family

We are already well into August and the busy summer continues. Last weekend I drove down in the desert to bring Christine and Abby home after their long two month vacation in Pennsylvania. We arrived to a big "welcome home" sign for the girls and birthday decorations up in the house for me. Since it was too hot to be outside, Saturday I planned a scavenger hunt for the kids at the El Centro mall. They had fun trying to find all of the items on the list. Afterwards we got some smoothies to cool off. That afternoon I drove to Yuma to enjoy a BBQ and the pool with the Myers and Frank. We had a good time together. Sunday morning we all went to church and then I was off to Imperial again for lunch. This past week began with our annual office fun day. Since we didn't have any budget to spend this year we decided to go for a day in the park. We all met up at Irvine Regional Park and enjoyed the $2 zoo, a fun little train ride, and the paddle boats.

From 2009 August 3 - Office Fun Day

Everyone brought food for a picnic together. I enjoyed the afternoon playing bocce. Click here to see more photos! Friday at noon after getting off work I was packed and ready to go camping with my Grace Group from church. This is our annual camping trip and our second time going to Camp Mabel French near Lopez Lake. The drive was long (about 5 hours) but after I was there I really enjoyed the relaxed peace and quiet of the camp (even with the 17 kids under the age of 6 running around!). The scenery is quite beautiful and I set up my tent under a giant oak tree.

From 2009 Aug - Camping Lake Lopez

We all pitched in for meals and it was fun to get to know some of the other families that came. I spent the week sitting around the campfire playing hinky pinky, relaxing, napping, hiking, and eating. I am glad I went even though the getting ready part was quite stressful. Saturday afternoon we drove into town (Arroyo Grande) and walked around the famer's market where I bought some delicious locally grown peaches and then had some fabulous ice cream at Doc Bernstein's Ice Cream Lab...mmm good!! I had the coffee flavored ice cream with crushed espresso beans & caramel bits. Sunday after breakfast it was time to pack it up. All in all it was a very good weekend!