Well, it is Wednesday and I had a really good run this evening, or what I thought was a good run.  I stopped my running near Lil E's day care, so we walked home together, and he wanted piggy-back rides in between the walking.  It was nice for a change instead of pushing him in the jogger; his 55 lbs + 20 lbs that the jogger is.  Anyway Greg has proposed that I try - or should run a marathon come June 1st.  I am really contemplating doing it.  After watching so many others do it; people of all different ages, shapes, and sizes; I might do it too???

We made homemade pizza last night and it was really good.  
Left work late on Monday, had a lot of catching up to do.  I still do-it is never ending; virtually like having two homes.  Anyway, this is what I saw when I walked out the door to my car.  Thought the storm clouds were pretty.   

Have a lot of pics to share.  Yesterday (Saturday) we dropped Margaux off at work and headed up north to Irvine.  I had seen a blog with this restaurant on it and the food looked so good, we went in search of it.  

It was well worth the drive and effort to find it.  We lucked out with one of the nicest waitresses and the food was great too.  Lil E got a birthday cake milkshake - yum.
Greg got a burger in a bowl.  One basically creates their own burger.    
Instead of having a hamburger I had a chicken burger with blue cheese, baby greens, sprouts, and apricot sauce.  I also had an Arnold Palmer (the drink- lemonade and ice tea).  
After the meal we let Lil E play outside on a big area of grass, kicking a soccer ball around.  I saw this Bird of Paradise and just had to take a pic. of it; bee and all.

We headed over to South Coast Plaza Mall in Costa Mesa, Laura's old stomping ground.  There is a pedestrian bridge that connects the two parts of the mall, and this was the view of the San Bernardino Mountains.  Snow in SoCal.  

Today, Sunday, after dropping Margaux off at work I went for a run down by the ocean.  It turned out to be a beautiful morning for a run.  No rain, but a new storm has just rolled in.  

We snuck out of the house for a quick bite to eat.  Lil E was entertaining himself by balancing his fork and spoon on his fingers.  What talent... 
He even had time to draw a snowman before our food came.  Let's just say the food serves we had yesterday at "The Counter," and the serves we had today were night and day.   

Well yesterday I finally met my 100 mile marker when it comes to running.  I started running in June and stopped again in Sept, Oct., Nov. and Dec.  So, now I am hoping to get back on track.  I use my ipod along with a nikeplus, which is able to keep track of my running.  

Yesterday we had a lot of rain. We are actually having a real winter this year.  Margaux is back working out on the pier at Rubys and got off early yesterday because of all the rain.
This is the way to start your day.  We had rainbows driving into work this morning and when I got to work I stopped to take a quick picture of this one.  Beautiful!    

Lil E and I went out for a jog this morning then stopped by the playground afterwards.  He found this really BIG stick.  Just like Avatar.  We stopped by to say "hi" to his friends at school too.  

It was a beautiful day in Carlsbad today for Greg's 1/2 marathon.  He did a great job and finished in just over 2 hours.  There were so many people that I missed him as he passed us.

Lil E and Daddy after the race.  Greg had to call us and we met up after he finished.  

Lil E admiring daddy's new medal.  

Post race picture of us.  Way to go Greg!!

Lil E's Big Day - His First Race!

Well today was Lil E's big day.  He got to run a whole mile around Legoland in the Keebler Kids Marathon Mile.  It is a pre-race for little kids before the big race that Greg is running in tomorrow.  
Here are some pre-race pictures.  He did really well having to wait around an hour before the race.


The start line.  Steve Scott a famous runner was there to get the kids off to a great start.  
Dad's taking the pics of Lil E running through Legoland.  He virtually ran the whole thing without stopping.  WOW!
Lil E lucked out, because the young boy passing out the medals gave him two.  We were only supposed to get one.  So he shared with dad and mom.  
A picture of his bib number and special medal.  :-)

Was down in San Diego yesterday at a reading conference.  The speaker was a professor from Kent State in Ohio; Tim Rasinski.  Very laid back and he loved to sing.  His perspective on reading fluency is not speed, but word recognition and then text comprehension.  He does a summer reading program and has shown how the use of poetry, songs, and readers theater and greatly increased the students ability to learn and read better.  Here is a pic of the hotel area - Town and Country in Hotel Circle.  

I thought this fountain was really pretty.  It was outside our conference room.  

After a long ride home; I went to pick up Lil E and he was busy making the letter "O" out of buttons.  Really cute.  

Out and About

Yesterday the three of us went up the coast towards Long Beach.  It was a beautiful day, as you can see.  The picture had a lot of haze in it, so it has been refreshed for better color.  

Lil E got to play at the playground for awhile.  The temperature was perfect and the ocean air was nice and salty.  

After playing at the park we ventured off to find this little shop in Costa Mesa.  Really cute shop with a lot of vintage and Paris related trinkets and gifts.  

Afterwards we went up to Santa Ana to find another place called the Art Bar.  It is in an area of Santa Ana that seems to be getting revitalized.  Really beautiful architecture.  This shot was taken in an alley.  

After all that running around we found this place hot dog place that I had seen off someone's blog.  This is the only in California; all the others are mainly around Chicago.  

Well, the big performance day arrived.  Here is lil E walking out to sing.  

 

Here is lil E singing with his classmates.  He had the loudest voice and he was a little faster then the rest because he knew the words so well.  Someone asked me if he had an agent yet.  As you may have noticed he has reindeer antlers on his head.  This was a delayed x-mas type performance.  

This is my favorite picture of the day.  Lil E outside after his performance.  He did a great job and it was such a beautiful day.  He even got ice cream afterwards with his second cousins.  

Had this little surprise in my mailbox at work today.  A mom that was a helper in my classroom a couple of years ago was trained in France at Le Cordon Bleu.  She is originally from Iran and she is a really beautiful person and is very gracious.  I haven't spoken with her in over a year, but come to find out her and another person are trying their hand at home made chocolates and other sweets.  She uses locally grown ingredients and gets her chocolate from Belgium and Venezuela.  Just had to share her kindness with you.  Gdaddy is stuck at the airport last time we spoke.  Poor guy is going to be exhausted come Friday eve when he makes it back in.  Lil E has been walking around the house singing songs that he learned in school.  He will be singing with his classmates on Friday.  I took the day off so I could see him.  Will share photos and maybe video of the event this weekend.  

Lil E is doing well getting back into the routine of going back to school.  On break he would get up at 5:00 am and even 4:30 am, ugh....  Now he gets up at 6:00 - 6:30; when you have to get out the door he sleeps in? Anyway he had a great day today he got two stickers for being a good listener.  He was very excited.  

First day back to work after holiday break.  Picture of drive home.  Rain cleared off and made for a beautiful crisp day. Took Margaux over to sign up for a college class this evening and this is what we saw on the walk back to the car.  Beautiful sunset!

We had more rain today, so everyone just kind of hung out and relaxed a little.  I made of point of going through some books today and trying to get a little organized.  Mollie is doing better too.  She is still a little sore, but is up and around.  Took this shot while outside with the dogs and Simon, who loves to run outside rain or shine.  

Got a little scrapbooking in today.  I have a lot to catch up on and a lot of photos to print up too. It is fun and very theraputic too.  

Simon is fascinated with the balloon that lil E. got from the dentist.  He can't figure out how it moves around and he is unable to catch it.  

Lil E.  checking out the water yesterday.   We walked out on the pier to enjoy the beach before the storm came in and to get a bubble gum too.  He was looking for fish, but only saw seaweed.  

Dogs went to groomer today.  Gibson is all fluffy and Mollie got a manicure.  She slipped down the stairs today and hurt herself.  Have to keep an eye on her leg.  Always something either the kids or the animals.  Fun...

Yesterday was the dentist and lil E. did an awesome job.  He was very curious and now he wants to be a rock star-fireman-dentist.  Pretty cool - brave little guy.

Well, no complaints here, it is Jan. 2nd and like 70+ degrees outside.  Lil E and his 2nd cousins were out playing at a very crowded park in Carlsbad.  We had to leave early because it seemed that the bees were enjoying the weather too, so once they started to swarm we left.  

I just had to share what the "Sprinkles" cupcakes look like.  Too bad you can't taste them they were really good!  We went to the store in Newport Beach.  Yummy....

Here is Simon.  He thinks he is back up in the mountains around Santa Cruz, where he grew up playing out on the farm in the redwoods.  His old home was so beautiful, I would miss it too.  

Yesterday in Review and New Year's Day

New Year's Eve day we got up and headed out to find a cupcake store; yes a cupcake store; I had seen on line.  We made our way up the coast, it was a little hazy with the marine layer, but it was a beautiful day.  We found the shop shortly after it opened and were in heaven after tasting the yummy cupcakes.  We bought some to share and two mini dog cupcakes too.

Afterwards we went further up the coast to find a Vespa shop; yes Greg is thinking??? The store was closed, so we headed out to find a Patagonia store instead, we drove by it and ended up at the mall that I wanted to go to.  I was looking for the store "Paper Source."  We were in Costa Mesa, my sister, Laura's old stomping ground; and we were at the "South Coast Plaza."  It is a huge mall with a bridge that connects one mall to another part. 

We got a bite to eat and headed out to find the Patagonia store and found it right down the road.  We parked and were tickled by the parking spaces with the sayings noted in each one. 

Lil E was getting tired and at one time laid down on the sidewalk.  

Tustin was our last destination to find a shop by the name of The Red Bee, a craft store that I had seen on line.  Tustin is pretty with the mountains as a backdrop, and has older buildings than most areas in Orange County.  

I was wrong we had one more stop and that was the mall in Mission Viejo where we picked one more thing up and stop by a grocery store, Bristol Farms, where we found some good Belgium beer which we shared over some pot roast.  

New's Day consisted of doing laundry, working in the backyard, taking down the Christmas Tree; which is still a work in progress, and popping over to my mom's house to say "Hello." Here is a shot of our new magnolia tree.  We ended our day outside with a little fire in our fire pit.