I Can Hardky Wait Wat For This!..........

What A Lazy Weekend!,,,,,

I have to say I don't know the last time I had such a lazy weekend. Usually on a weekend were we don't have anything planned, I will come up with something for me to do or get involved in, but not this weekend, no sirree. Saturday was a perfect day to be lazy in,,,rain ALL day. I woke up early as usually and laid in bed and watched it rain outside through the window myside of the bed. I usually keep the blinds pulled up at night so I can lay in bed and see the stars. So Saturday I just laid in bed and watched the rain for awhile. After getting up and eating my Honey Nut Cheerios (honest..they are so good), I decided to go back to bed with my laptop and read some of the blogs I keep up with on here. It was the first time I have take the laptop back to bed with me, have to tell you, now I am so hooked! Patrick was up doing somethings in the office so after a bit,I got a little sleepy so I ended up taking nap #1 of the day. So for the rest our rainy Saturday I alternated between reading a book I have been trying to read (on California's first governor) and taking another nap or two. I don't remember the last time I was totally lazy all day on the weekend, or any other day, it was great!

Today was such a beautiful sunny day, I started off my day (after my bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios) by cleaning up the interior of my car. Having all these rainy days sure makes it hard to vacuum the inside.After having lunch with Patrick's parents, we headed out to Glendale with the kids to see Avatar. I know we are late in seeing it but we just could not get us and the kids together at the same time to go. This will be the last weekend it is in the theaters since they will be moving it out to make way for 'Alice in Wonderland" with starts on Friday. I can not even begin to tell you what a beautiful movie it is. We saw it in 3D and it was amazing.
We decided to go to dinner after the movie (it is 3 hours long but does not seem like it) we headed to the Olive Garden, but the wait was over an hour long and we were all hungry so we went over the California Pizza Kitchen. We were really disappointed. We had not eaten at one in a while, they were busy but we got seated in a reasonable amount of time. We ordered and were told they were out of the bread they give you while you wait for your food and had been for about an hour. Now we were there at 6:30, I am just not understanding how a restaurant could run out of something they use all the time like bread. We were not the only ones who were annoyed by in from the sound of some of the people around us. We were really taken back when we got the bill and found out it cost us over $70 for the 4 of us to eat...pizza and pasta. So needless to say we won't be going back to California Pizza Kitchen any time soon. But over all we had a really great time out with the kids today.

So here I am now, getting ready to end my day and my lazy weekend, propped up in bed once again with my laptop. Yep..I was a slug this weekend...did not accomplish very much of nothing all weekend....and you know what..I am so loving it!! I just might have to this again soon!!!

later!

ps....Can you believe it is the last day of February already???!! So I guess that means tomorrow we start a whole new month.....my favorite month of the whole year...March...My Birthday Month, YEAAAAAAAA!

Rainy Days

It's another rainy day here in LA today, but I should start out by letting you know, I love the rain.

In Southeast Texas where I grew up, you can actually smell the rain before it gets to you. You know it is going to rain because of the huge clouds that float high above you as they cross the skies, but the smell of the rain is what really gives it away.


I would stand at the front door and watch the rain come down, sometimes so hard you could not see the woods across the street. The ditches would fill up and overflow our street, sometimes coming right up to the edge of our house, covering our lawn.
Our house set up high enough that we were never in danger of flooding. And then,
it would all be over....leaving a beautiful smell in the air and a wonderful
silence, so quiet could stand on the porch and listen to the water as it drained away.

Once the rain was over we could go outside and play in the water. The ditches in front our house were actually not really deep, well at the least the one that ran along the front of our yard. But looking back I can remember standing on the edge
of the road looking down in that ditch and thinking how deep it was. The water was so clear running in the ditch you could see the bottom. My brother and I would
wade off in the ditch (yes barefoot) and play in the water that ran across our road and think
nothing of it, only laughing and having a great time. To this very day I can remember the feel of the cold water that was in that ditch as I stepped in. I can still feel the current against my legs as I waded in deeper.

Our yard was an acre of land big. On one side of the acre was the house and main yard and we refered to the other half simply as "the half acre". Even my nieces and nephews ,who also grew up around my Mom and Dad's house, refer to it still as
that. Sometimes when we would have a really big rainstorm, the water would overflow
from the ditches and cover a great deal of the half acre. Then the real fun would start. The water would flow across the grass and sometimes come up to our knees as we waded off in the water. We were never allowed to go any further than up to our knees. We would throw small sticks in the current and watch them float way or make small paper boats and sail them in the currents.
We would watch as groups of ants would float by on the current,sometimes large groups, we always thought they were crowded together on a floating stick or something. We would later learn that the ants we all balled up together so they could float like that. We did have to be careful because there were "critters" in the water with us sometimes. We would just about always see
crayfish and sometimes a snake or two swimming across the top of the water looking for a higher place to get to. Once after a really large rain we came across a type of eel out on the half acre at the edge of the water. It has come from a pond that was several acres across from where we lived and had floated over on the current of the run off. It was an amazing creature. Our "biggest" enemy when we played in the water was.....the snapping turtle. We were so afraid of them. It was a very rare thing to see one at anytime, but sometimes one come around. They were nasty looking turtles, their shells would look like some kind of armour and they had shart beak like noise, they were called snapping turtles for a reason, they had powerful jaws and could snap down on a stick and break it or it could do the same to your finger or toe
if you surprised them in the water. Sad thing is,I have not seen one in many many years now.

Throughout the rest of my life, I would always love the rain. Where ever I have lived through the years, my neighbors would always see me out walking in the rain in my sweatshirt and ball cap. Rainy days are always special for me.

Living in the Desert, rainy days were especially special because they came by so rarely. I learned early on the wonderful smell of a desert rain. If we had a really rainy winter, like the one we have had this year, that would mean we would have
a beautiful spring with all the desert flowers blooming in great abundance.

Since I moved into the City, I still enjoy my rainy days, but the smells are oh so different. I see the rains as a cleansing of everything here. The smell of wet asphalt was a new smell for me to see as a rain smell. But in the early morning
stillness of a rainy morning here in the City, I still enjoy the sound and the smell of cool rainy day.

later

ps..for those of you who may not know, I grew up in a rural area, the road in front of our house was a dirt road for many years of my life and we were the only house on the street. Our "neighborhood" was totally surrounded by woods. Nothing like a modern day neighborshood today.

A Festive Kinda Day......

Well today was a day for celebration in our household,we had two holidays for us that just happened to fall on the same day this year...Valentine's Day AND Chinese New Year, so needless to say, we did us some celebrating today!!

I have to tell ya. I LOVE Chinese New Year. It has much more meaning to it then the traditional New Year's celebrations the world does every year. Of course I celebrate the traditional New Year with the rest of the world, but over the past few years,
celebratig Chinese New Year has become really important to me.

Since I have become apart of a Chinese family, I have been introduced to allot that has to do with the Buddhist religion. Patrick's parents are Buddhist and of course we share in all the special days of the year with them. Being raised a Baptist, this is a whole new world for me, one that I enjoy very much.

So starting last night (Saturday) we started celebrating the New Year with a special dinner, which included not only our family but our BFF Timmy. Last night was his 16th time to join the Lee Family in celebrating Chinese New Year Eve.

This morning we got up early and had a special breakfast together and then headed out to the 2 Buddhist temples the Lees attend. This is the really special part for me.
It is there that we burn incense and offer up our individual prayers at the beginning of the year. For me, it is a very moving experience.

After were finished at the Temples, we headed out for lunch and then home. So after we got home, Patrick and I got to celebrate the "other" holiday that was happening today....Valentine's Day!! We exchanged our gifts and then we celebrated another tradition we like on Chinese New Year....taking naps!!!!!

The weather today was just perfect. I even managed to take a nice long walk in the afternoon. It was a really nice day....and tomorrow back to the grind for me...Patrick and the kids have the day off to celebrate President's Day!!!!!

later!