Tammy’s Fabulous Blog

So i created a Picasa web album with a few pictures from tonight… not sure if this link is going to work

but you can try looking at it

Day started off with heavy rain and busy parties in school. Kids both had to bring treats for the class parties, and bring their costumes to change into for the parade. All the parents were sure hoping for a ray of sunshine for the parade, and believe it or not… it worked. It actually stopped just 10 min. before the parade, and actually its 5:00 now… and its still not raining, granted the clouds are starting to threaten… but i think we’ll be fine for tonight.  Kids are excited, but becuase we are not changing our clocks back until tomorrow… it is not going to be dark early this year… which means the kids need to wait till 6:30 to go out… they are quite antsy. Max went across the street to play with Jack… to get his energy out. Mady is in her room watching TV… her favorite past-time… writing stories while laying on her floor, watching TV.

House is decorated, but the wind keeps threating to blow it all down, so we’ll see how that goes tonight.

Papa is picking up the pumpkin shaped pizza’s right now… and we’ll have dinner and get ready to. Pictures to follow.

I saw a recipe in a travel magazine (for Mexico) that looked like something I just had to try. The recipe seemed simple enough, and the presentation looked pretty easy to achieve.
Well… it took me a good part of Sunday just to prepare the 4 different steps.
First the Black Bean sauce (more like a soup, which the poblano is served on top of), this sauce needs to go into a blender. Then the mango salsa, lots of chopping. Then of course the roasting of the poblanos over the open flame of my gas burner, and peeling them (not exactly easy, but pretty fun )
After all that, I needed to shred the cheeses, and mix the three. Then i needed to de-seed the chilis… now… I thought these were mild chilis, so I deseeded them, with no worries, but about an hour later, my hands were on fire, apparently these were some hot chilis, or at least the seeds were!
I then needed to stuff the chilis with the cheese mixture, and lay them in a baking dish to bake for just 15 minutes. At which time I reheated the black bean sauce, poured it into the bottom of the serving dishes, pulled out the poblanos… set them on top… topped with the salsa, and drizzled some sour cream.
Presentation was pretty good, but the camera was not capturing so well… here’s my picture

The consensus, even from Max, was superb. I really enjoyed the meal, the pepper itself was a bit hot, but… the salsa really cooled that down. The crunchiness of the salsa, and the silkiness of the beans really played together with the spiciness of the pepper and richness of the cheese!
A lot of work, but worth it… ready to try it out on Mom and Dad who return from Hawaii in 12 short days!!

Wow, I cant believe its close enough to Christmas that I have already sent out my party invitation. I figured the party is just 6 weeks away, and people need to get it on their calendars. I am having it, as usual, on the first Saturday of December, and changing it up a bit by having everyone bring either an hordeourve or a dessert based on their last name’s first letter. Should be intresting, and should help keep the cost of the party down for me.
I put a call into the North Pole and Santa will be visiting, which of course is the whole purpose of this party. I love love love to see the kids faces light up when he walks through that door… and just the shear amazement that he actually came with a gift for them, is so heart warming to watch. Hopefully the next 6 weeks will not be a planning nightmare… its usually lots of fun
Of course we still have Halloween and Thanksgiving to get through… but we’ve got to plan ahead

Tomorrow, Friday, I am so excited to be going to the Sacramento Scrapbooking Convention. I will be meeting my sister there at 8am, our all day crop, is from 8a-12midnight, but, we do have 2 classes scheduled throughout the day
we have a class from 9-10, where we will do a project that is not for the books, but a picture hanging project. The second class is later in the day where we will learn about Vellum quotes, and to use them throughout our pages, this is a 2 hour class… this will be exciting!! We’ll stay the night, and we’ll do a bit of shopping Saturday morning.
The best thing about all of this is that I will be totally engrossed in this event, I will get immersed in what I am doing for a full 24 hours and not have to think of the terrible economy and where my stocks are, nor will I have to listen to any debates on whether i should vote for mccain or obama!
Ah, sweet freedom!
hopefully i will take a picture or two of my work tomorrow, and post it!
ta ta

the kids’ couldnt have been more excited about their trip, I left them, sitting on the bus, listening to bus driver instructions for their 3 hour bus ride to Sausalito. They were so quiet, but excited, it was cute. The should have arrived about 12:00 noon, had a bit of lunch, and then boarded the Call of the Sea (pictured here).

this program is available to all school groups, or any group you’d like to bring.
They just got home, picked them up and they all looked like they’d been gone for weeks. All they wanted to do is get off the bus. Three hour bus ride, three hour sailing trip, three hour bus ride home… a bit too much bus for the kids liking… said they’d prefer something a bit closer, but they liked being right there next to the Golden Gate Bridge. They saw a lot of sea life, and got to steer the helm.
All in all it was fun, and I think a memory they will hold on to for a good while.

thought about my annual christmas party this weekend, seems so early to start the planning process, but in reality its only about 6 or so weeks away. Planning on 12/7 this year but i need to line up a few resources, and figure out how to do this on a low budget. I think Im up for the challenge, and it will make for a fun, different party. And then i need to get the evite out!
Just got the house decorated for Halloween this weekend, not a lot of hoopla, but enough to set the tone. Nice that the big event is on a Friday night, so we dont have to worry about kids and school the next day (I bet the teachers are happy as well, becuase sugar hangovers the next day cant be fun for the teachers).
Spent most of yesterday looking at all the past photo albums I created, starting with 1997, amazing that they go back that far, and I have one for every year! Kids enjoy them soooo much! It feels good to hear how much they love them… its all worth it!
Not an extremly busy week, which is nice, Max has a fieldtrip tomorrow, sailing in Sausalito, he is so excited! I’ll have to post a picture, assuming he takes some/.
ta ta for now

Twelve years ago today, Donato and I were married, under the beauty of Half Dome, El Capitan and the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. We were so fortunate to have a small group of our loved ones to witness and enjoy our weekend with us.
I have very fond memories of this day, we started it out with a hike to Indian Caves, where we all hung out and climbed rocks, it was fabulous, but… had to head back to the camp to shower for the big event. Upon returning we found out the showers were closed and all 20 of us had to go take showers in the sinks of the camp bathrooms… hillarious!
We drove (only time we’ve EVER driven within Yosemite Valley) over to Ahwahnee Hotel, where we met the Justice of the Peace… and forgot our marriage license. Luckily someone in our group volunteered to run back and get it… all in time of course
Karla was my “flower girl” and Charlyene my Maid of Honor, and Dad gave me away. Alex was the Best Man. We had a terrific ceremony under a great big tree in the field outside the hotel. We later walking into the formal dining room on the Ahwahnee for a special dinner.
Perfect setting for a memorable wedding! Happy Anniversary!