Raspberry Topped Lemon Muffins

I decided to go for it...I am not usually a lemon flavored desserts person. I like chocolate. But, I thought this would be something different. I went with the Raspberry Topped Lemon Muffins because they were pretty looking. I do like raspberries, so I thought that this would be a good start to widen my dessert horizon. They were pretty good, but not the best thing ever. The first batch I made as mini muffins. I thought that they would be better because you can just pop them in your mouth. Unfortunately, the sour raspberry taste is too strong for the small muffin. The second batch, I made regular sized muffins and they are much better. Still, after eating them, I want more lemon...

I am busy tomorrow night...

Thankfully, I bought my ticket to go see the Sex and the City movie last week! It is sold out! I am going with some friends tomorrow night at 7. We are expecting a line to get into the theater, so we are going to get there early. I didn't watch Sex and the City when it was on TV. I got into it when Joe deployed a few years ago. We used to belong to Netflix and I rented the first few disks and then got hooked. So hooked that I was late for work a few times because I had to finish the episode! I think that I watched all 6 years in less than 1 week! I can't wait to see what happens in the movie!

Our Cold California Weekend

Joe had a 4 day weekend and we had planned to do a few things, however the cold weather put a stop to that. On Friday, our plan was to go to Santa Monica for the day to check out the pier and Third Street Promenade. We didn't have any shopping to do (of course, I can always find something to buy) but we wanted to do some sightseeing and celebrity watching (I told my friends in Minot that they would someday see a picture of me scaling the wall of Brad Pitt's house on the cover of People magazine.) But, we woke up on Friday morning and looked at the weather in Santa Monica and the forcast looked cold and rainy. We changed our minds and stuck around here and went shopping in Palmdale. It actually was a good thing, because we bought ourselves a Memorial Day present--a GPS. We also went to Sam's Club, our new favorite hangout on weekends.

When we finally decided to go to Santa Monica on Sunday, the GPS was a huge help. I was a little disappointed during our trip when we went to Yummy Cupcakes and had a cupcake. Definately not as good as I had hoped!


Joey did get to see the ocean and the beach for the first time. Here are some pictures to prove it:

Whose the flyer now???

Today we had Spouses Day at TPS. We had the choice of flying in a KC-135, a T-38 taxi ride, or a glider in Tehachapi(about 45 min from Edwards.) I chose to do the KC-135 because it seemed the least scariest of all three. Unfortunately, they cancelled it and Joe wanted me to do the glider, so I sucked it up and went. It was a great time and I am glad that I did it.








I drove up with my friends Vicki, Kelly, Annie and Kerry.








The gliders are really little planes that fit two people, one in the front and one in the back. The pilot sat in the back and I sat in the front. Here is a picture of us taking off. The glider is pulled up into the air by a plane with an engine. The glider doesn't have an engine. Once we were in the air and up high enough, the pilot told me to pull the release to release us from the plane with the engine. Suprisingly, I felt safer without the plane attached to us...I don't know why.







After were were "set free" we glided around Tehachapi for about 15 minutes.














For all of my Minot friends...see, there are boring fields in California, too!












And finally, here is a picture of my pilot Gary and myself while in the air. This is the real proof that I actually did it!

Cheesecake Pops

On Sunday and yesterday (they took 2 days to make), I made Cheesecake Pops for my Pokeno group. It was a pretty easy process, but a little time consuming. I found the recipe on the blogs on the left side. I read them all and used tips from all of those ladies to make my pops. I decided that it would be easier to make them into squares, because I didn't want it all over my hands. Unfortunately, I am not good at cutting in perfect lines, so they are all different sizes. At first, I started dipping the whole thing in chocolate and then in graham crackers, but Joe thought it was too much chocolate and too much graham crackers. So, I dipped them almost to the top and then just sprinkled graham crackers on them. They turned out really good and I will make them, but maybe I will try to make them round. Here is a picture of them:

4 Months Old!

Today Joey is 4 months old. Lucky him, he got to celebrate it by going to the doctor (he laughed at the doctor the whole time we were there and if you met the doctor, you would also) and getting 2 shots:( During the shots, his face turned a shade of red that I have never seen before. He definately was not happy. The good news is that he is measuring and weighing right on track. He weighs 16.6 lbs and is 26 1/8 inches long. The doctor asked me who was the big one in my family...could be Joe, could be my dad...who knows? I just can't believe that my little baby is getting so big!

Farewell 07B!

Last night, I went to a farewell party for the spouses of the class ahead of Joe. There are two classes a year, class A and class B. Class A starts in January(that is us) and class B starts in July. These ladies started last July and are done here in two weeks. I don't really know any of them so I wasn't horribly sad at the party, but I had a good time with the girls in my class(or Joe's, but I refer to them as my class because I am going through TPS, too.) The food was DELICIOUS!

I ate a million olive tapenades. They were made my my friend Annet(her husband is an exchange student in the class and they are from France.) Also, my friend Kelly the pastry chef marveled us with her fruit cups. Here is a picture of them:

Here are a few more pictures of the evening:

Kelly and I

Dina, Vicki, Sheree and I

Most of the spouses of 08A--a few weren't there(the theme was black and white)

Fun in the Sun

Yesterday, we went over to my friend Mindy's (and her daughter Eliana) house to play in the pool. Yes, it is that warm here. Joey didn't actually get into the pool because the water was freezing, but he was ready to go in a bathing suit that my Aunt Terry sent him:





My other friend Dina was there with her two kids, David and Caroline. Caroline is 6 months. We laid both Joey and Caroline down on a blanket and it only took a few minutes for them to turn their heads and look at eachother. Unfortunately, everytime I tried to get a picture of them looking at eachother, they looked at me.



Then, Caroline rolled right onto Joey. He didn't even care that she was invading his personal space!

A Broken Toe

I think that I broke my pinky toe. I accidently kicked the leg of Joey's bouncy chair. It hurts really bad and my toe looks dirty (black and blue.) I am having a hard time walking on it. I don't think that there is anything that the doctor can do for it. It is just really annoying.
It is going to get up to 103 degrees in California in the next week. I don't know if I am ready for that extreme heat. It doesn't even cool down at night like anywhere in the north. Last night around 8pm, it was still close to 90 degrees. Weird.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today is my first Mother's Day! We had a good day that started with going to the gym. My mom is here so she stayed with Joey. Then we went to brunch and negated the workout. Oh well.



Yesterday, my friend Pam came over with her 3 dogs Jasper, Lizzie and Kunzite. It is actually funny to see CeCe with them. They played ball for an hour straight.



Here are some pictures from the past week or so: Joey's Pictures. Enjoy!

But I am only 28!

When we lived in Minot, I used to get AARP information in the mail atleast once a month. We laughed about it, hung it on the fridge for a little, but forgot about it after we moved. Well, they found me again! I have gotten AARP info two days in a row! They want me to become a member. I feel like calling them to tell them to save their paper and stamps, because I still have another 22 years until I can join! I want to know how they found me in California.

Why can't we shoot them?

If we could, my dad would be here tomorrow!

Another Coyote attack! Three in one week!

Happy Birthday Uncle Mikey!

Today is my brother's 30th birthday. He is an old man:)

A Beautiful Day Outside

After playgroup (where my friend Kelly made some more delicious food for us), I decided to take Joey outside in the backyard to sit in the sun. It is so beautiful here. Our backyard doesn't have any shade (but he of course has sunglasses), so I had to move quickly to take pictures.

Since Joey isn't sitting up completely on his own, I had to hang a blanket on the fence and lean him up against it.

But he isn't completely sturdy while sitting, so he fell over. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of him going face first into the brown grass, but I did sit him back up and snapped this picture of him crying.

And then, being the happy baby he is, he started smiling again, so I resumed my picture taking.

Yep, you guessed it, he went down again and that was the end of that.

Aren't I lucky???

Check out this handsome pair!

Yes, I saw it...

This is why I don't take CeCe on walks and curse those stupid things everytime that I see them:
Coyote Attacks Toddler Video.