My Baby Turns 16!

We celebrated Indy's 16th birthday this past weekend.  His birthday fell quite inconveniently on Superbowl Sunday I might add...  However our theme of the weekend was POKER.

We started off Friday, after Indy's soccer game, surprising Indy with a few friends over for an "adult" game of poker.  And a surprise visit by Deb who sufficiently embarrassed Indy with many more the 16 kisses in lieu of the obligatory spankings :)  (And I forgot to get that on camera!)

In the end a good time was had by all.  Well... mostly by Indy since Scott, who came in first and won the majority of the pot, gave him the winnings AND Cory who came in second, winning much needed gas money which is pretty important when you're 16.

We spent Saturday doing random activities with Indy which included breakfast with Esprit and me, going to watch Dos Pueblos at a girls water polo tournament in Irvine, pool playing at Big Shots and finishing the night with Chinese food for dinner.

Sunday was Indy's actual Birthday.  The day started off with the living room filled with balloons as well as gift #1 (of 16) and a bouquet of 16 balloons.

And Sean joined us throughout the day...

The remainder of Indy's 16 gifts would show up randomly throughout the day, including the waitress at breakfast delivering one!  With each gift came the rather loud announcement "P R E S E N T".

Although originally planned as a surprise (thank you very much Scott...LOL), this was also the day of the "big" party.  We carried the poker theme all the way through.  We even designed a large poker chip for the invitations.

Decorated in red, black and white...

Played games...  



 Marshmallow tower with the tallest tower, which needed to stand on it's own to win.

The old cotton ball sticking on the nose with petroleum jelly game :)  My personal favorite! LOL  (notice Indy's birthday tie?  Complete with 16 candles...)

The serious poker players...

And the winner is.... JORGE!!!!!  Better luck next time Sean...

And my FAVORITE part of the day... my birthday photo with my son.  My heart melts...

Christmas Photos

So, I sort of had a little crazy moment the weekend after finding out that Esprit and Sean were married... And knowing that Sean was deploying the next day, 10/31... my biggest concern? The photo for our Christmas cards, of course. Scott thought I had pretty much lost it. I was very serious. Indy was not happy... Esprit didn't realize it was THE Christmas card photo I was wanting... Sean??? Well he was a pretty good sport and still wasn't too sure about my reaction to their marriage news yet! LOL Welcome to the family son-in-law :) Here are some of the shots of the day.

Still Getting Used to Esprit being Married...

It's now been just over 2 months since we were told that Esprit and Sean were married last May. I've gone through so many emotions over these couple of months and find that I am still working through this. It's not that Esprit and Sean got married. I knew almost a year ago, when Sean came back into our lives, that this was a good probability. It's, quite selfishly, that I wasn't there... I should have been...

And then Sean left 10/31 for a 7 month deployment to Afghanistan. Now I have until the beginning of June to adjust to the reality that my little girl will be moving out. How does one prepare for this? I'm so grateful that I've had these 23 years with her at home. I'm still not ready for my children to leave... is that wrong?

The weekend that Esprit and Sean were married they stayed in Laguna Beach. A buddy of Sean's and his wife were there and took some photos of the newly married couple. Here are just a few...

Missing this Blog...

I haven't posted anything here since before last Christmas! I seriously feel like I need to start blogging again. Facebook and Twitter are okay for those short random thoughts that pop into my head all the time, but here is where I can express myself more comfortably. I've only distributed this blog address to family and those friends who I think might be interested in what's happening at the Ogle home.

So...I'll be blogging. That's my plan at least.

Happy Holidays

I thought we were starting the season out rather well by having the inside of our home decorated over Thanksgiving weekend. We never did get the outside lights up. Now here we are at December 22 and I've no idea where this month has gone! The last of the Christmas cards were mailed out this morning. Still so much to do.

We're spending Christmas Eve with Indy's Deb and family. Can't wait for Apples to Apples :) Christmas morning, after seeing what Santa has brought us, we'll have our traditional breakfast complete with Christmas crackers.

ETHS Alumni soccer games on Saturday. Looking forward to the games especially the CIF Alumni play against the Varsity team.

If you're here reading our blog you've probably received your Christmas card, so here are a few photos that didn't make it into the card.

That's Esprits' friend Andy Monte doing the Charlie's Angels pose with her. Andy was our official photographer for the evening. Thanks Andy!

Change is Good...

ultimately, I believe this. It's the fear of the unknown that is a little stressful.

Scott's company has closed it's manufacturing office here in California. 9/15 was the final day for the employees, including Scott (: We've know this for the past 60 days thanks to the WARN law put into place back in the late 80's.

What now????? Good question... Scott is going to try and pursue selling print jobs for other printers. He's been networking since being layed off. This is something he's wanted to do for a number of years now. This little "push" may be just what he needed. Just a little stressful going from a guaranteed paycheck to unknown commission.

We're counting our blessings, of which we have many. Esprit and Indy are two of them! This affects us all and they are fantastic about the changes we're having to make.

Reconnecting With a Dear Friend

I met Joanna 32 years ago while I was on vacation with my family at a dude ranch in Paso Robles. Out in the middle of NOWHERE! At 17 I wasn't too thrilled to even be on vacation with the family. I was pretty excited when we arrived and there was a youth group from San Jose there as well! Joanna and I hit if off right away. We remained pen pals (I'm dating myself here, this is when we actually wrote on paper to each other) and the next summer Joanna's youth group went to the same dude ranch. I was invited to join them and jumped at the opportunity. It was okay to be at the ranch now as my family wouldn't be there :)

Although we continued to be pen pals and visited each other a couple of times, we ultimately lost touch. Joanna finally managed to find me on Facebook 2 months ago. My excitement at her friend request I cannot express in words. Suffice to say there was much laughing and jumping up and down and complete disbelief. We spoke on the phone the next day. More laughter and jumping up and down... Fast forward (okay the time actually went very S L O W) to this past weekend when Joanna came to visit!!!!! It was WONDERFUL. Just as I had remembered.

Scott, Esprit and Indy were great with Joanna visiting. Esprit gave up her room and they all tolerated me and Joanna and I were giddy. Man, I REALLY need that. Thank you Joanna for finding me!!!!

Scott recovering nicely

It's been just over a week since Scott had his hernia surgery. This is the second surgery on the right side. Everything went as expected. Scott was back at work this past Tuesday. By the end of the day he's pretty tired, but refreshed after each nights sleep. Must not be too terribly bad, he's off playing poker tonight!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY INDY!!!

It's Birthday #14 for my young man...

We'll be heading off to the Happiest Place on Earth later this afternoon. SHHHH, we have reservations at the Blue Bayou and, if Indy wants to, we'll go see the newly done It's A Small World. Then, I believe, we're heading to Downtown Disney to see the Pink Panther 2. It's all up to the Birthday Boy, it's his Birthday weekend!

Survivor, The Fish

Okay...so I'm sure you're asking, why is the fish named Survivor??? Well Survivor was purchased by my friend, Jessica along with a couple of other fish as feeder fish for water turtles. Apparently the turtles allow the feeder fish to fatten up over the winter and in the springtime the feeder fish "disappear". Not Survivor! This fish would taunt and tease the turtles and eluded "disappearing". Thus Jessica's son Will named him Survivor. We believe one turtle may have gotten close as Survivor had a side fin just about missing. This caused Survivor to swim tilted on his side.

Well...this past year the Guthrie's re-located to Florida courtesy of the Marine's. Although most of their animals also re-located to Florida, Survivor, the fish did not. Survivor was all ready to go live in a small aquarium with Jessica's parents. Then I thought that perhaps Survivor would be happier in a larger space. We have a pond and a lonely Koi who, I was sure, would enjoy having a friend to swim with. I offered to take Survivor and Jessica, Will and Jessica's parents, graciously indulged me!

This first photo is Survivor just after coming to live with us. He felt most comfortable in the space under the water wheel. Survivor didn't like coming out to swim with our Koi. He may have thought he was still being hunted...












This second photo is recent. Survivor pretty much owns the pond these days. He's grown incredibly and enjoys swimming close to his friend, the Koi.

Happy Birthday, Scott, My Love

We celebrated Scott's birthday today. What a beautiful day here in Orange County!

We started the day with our family having breakfast at Mollie's in San Juan Capistrano. Then Esprit and Indy took their Dad to shoot some pool at Big Shots while I did a little bit of work. After returning home, Scott opened his gifts before Esprit had to go into work. (insert sad face. Esprit was not happy about going to work today.) Scott, Indy and I then went to the Happiest Place on Earth, Disneyland of course! Scott had many random people wishing him Happy Birthday, thanks to the birthday button he was wearing :) The button also scored him a package of 10 tortillas at the Mission tortilla factory in California Adventure. It was quite exciting! And to complete our day, after Disneyland it was off to BJ's Brewery for a fabulous dinner complete with their famous pazookie for the birthday boy.

Scott's will continue his birthday celebrations throughout the weekend, which is a tradition here in the Ogle home. This will include a soccer tournament that Indy is playing in, which may not have been at the top of Scott's list, but we'll work with it...

I Love You, Scott. Here's to spending many more birthday celebrations with you.

A Wonderful Surprise Visit

It was a WONDERFUL surprise on Thursday. My dad called me in the middle of the day to say that he and Gerd were in Newport Beach! When they were finished in NB they came on over for a visit. I treasure each and every one of these moments.

Christmas Photo Fun

It's no secret that I am typically late in sending out my Christmas Cards. I'm sure you've noticed. It's become a sort of tradition :) In keeping with tradition (LOL) this years cards will be on their way soon...

I LOVE to make the cards we send out. This has become another tradition. One that I look forward to all year, although I sometimes run into a mental block trying to think of a design. Scott is my fabulous sounding board and many of the cards we've done end up being a joint effort. This year, Esprit was the designer of our card, although not intentionally. It just came to her at dinner one night. I hope you get as much pleasure out of her work when you do receive it as we all have.

Our family photo has also become a tradition. Many years ago, when I was late sending cards out, we still needed to take our family photo. There wasn't anyone around to take the picture so we rigged up the camera on boxes and set the timer. Either Scott or I would push the button and run around to place ourselves in time for the flash to go off. This became a tradition as we always seem to forget about the picture until the last moment. This year was no exception. Esprit and Indy decided to have a little pre-family photo fun. I walked into the living room as they were finishing up these posed shots. (they make me LOL) Enjoy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR !!!!

Wishes to you all for a Wonderful 2009! May you enjoy Peace, Good Health and Beautiful Memories.

We started our New Years Eve with our tradition of eating Grandma Herb's enchiladas. Scott's mother passed this recipe on to us and I seem to only make them once a year. Yummy!

Dinner was followed up with Esprit, Indy, Scott and Brandon (Esprit's boyfriend) playing games of Risk and Monopoly. For those of you who know the Ogle side of the family, you will appreciate that Brandon had his first mild dose of the competitive side of the family :) Scott then retreated to his online Poker while Esprit and I serenaded the boys with the help of American Idol for playstation. (Tortured may be more like it, LOL!) Makes me realize how out of touch I am with current music. Quite sad... I'll be practicing during any alone time I have and all I can say is BRING IT ON ESPRIT!!!

After watching the ball drop in Time Square we snuffed out all the candles (thank you Brandon) and Esprit was off to dog sit for Pepper. Scott is still playing online Poker and I decided to write on the blog! A 2009 resolution I hope to keep up.

Mexican food not such a good idea just yet

It's been quite a couple of months for me as I've had two laparoscopic surgeries in the past 7 weeks. The first, simply put, for some adhesions as a result of a surgery 3 years ago. The most recent to have my gallbladder removed.

The gallbladder really did need to come out as I had been having attacks since last May. Painful and not fun! Some of the attacks were pretty scary. Since my diagnosis in July (procrastination on going to the doctor) I have been on a low fat type of diet. Reluctantly I will say. The gallbladder reacts to much more that just fat so there were so many foods off limits unless I wanted to test my pain tolerance. Great for losing weight. I have clothes to wear that I couldn't wear for a long time. Not really a bad thing, just frustrating. How fortunate I have been for so many years to eat all the junk I indulged in :)

It's only been 9 days since the surgery. I have been taking great pleasure in tasting foods that I haven't had since July. Pizza is okay. Coffee is okay. Eggs are okay. Dairy products are okay. MEXICAN FOOD IS NOT! Darn... We went to Don Jose's last night and the end result was not pleasant. I'll have to wait a while longer and give it another go.

A Soccer Kind of Weekend

Indy had a soccer tournament this weekend in Irvine. The two games played on Saturday were at 3:00 and 5:30pm. Man! was it cold!!!!! BRRRRR The fields were quite nice, right down near UCI campus and up on a bluff. The sea breeze came across there with a chill while the clouds up above us tried to decide whether to rain or not. Scatterred raindrops were enough to put the final chill in our bones. I think I speak for all the parents and spectators (who am I kidding? only the parents were brave enough to spectate last night) we would have LOVED to be on the field running around and keeping warm! The boys tied their first game at 0-0 and lost the second 1-5.

Sundays game was at the same field at 12:30. Nice time for a game. Beautiful clear day that started out with the sun shining and later hid behind some clouds, but definately not as cold as last night. Not such a good game for the boys who ended up losing 0-3.

We're now on a hiatus from soccer until January when we play in another tournament mid month.

It's Been Too Long Since My Last Post!

The time has been flying by much too quick. So much has been happening. Let's see if I can get myself back to posting just a little at a time.

I did get a new computer at the end of September. My OLD system had run out of room on the C drive and it was impossible to do anything with photos.

Indy Makes the Cut !!!!!

Indy will be playing next season for the Laguna Niguel Soccer Club BU14 Bronze team!! We are sooooo excited! And Indy will even get to be his favorite #4! I am so proud of him. Indy has worked quite hard the past several weeks to get onto a Club team.

We discovered the hard way the importance of being prepped for a sport before your child gets into High School. Sadly for Esprit we didn't know this bit of information. Students basically don't even get looked at by High School coaches if they aren't some kind of "star" player in club sports. Of course there are exceptions, I'm sure...

Anyway, after last years unfortunate negative attempt at Club soccer Indy went on to have a great Fall soccer season on the AYSO Plus team. But, we knew it would be necessary to get Indy onto a Club team this year if he is to have any type of shot at High School soccer. And he LOVES soccer, so...we have been spending much of the past several weeks at A LOT of different Clubs trying out. All of this in addition to his practices for the AYSO Spring season we signed on for.

Did I say that my child loves this sport? I haven't had one complaint about all the extra practices. Some minor grumbles on a couple of the tryouts as they weren't teams Indy really wanted to play on. But the thing is, you can't guarantee making the cut for any one Club, so you have to try them all, hope you get multiple offers and get the luxury of making the choice.

52 Ways to Make a Difference

Is it okay to bloglift? Is that even a word??? Well...I know that we sometimes scraplift so here I go bloglifting. Thank you Susan for bringing this website to our attention!

CHECK IT OUT - The website is http://julie.libsyn.com/ and has a weekly podcast and blog for 52 weeks that gives ideas and links of ways for everyone to make a difference in someones life. FABULOUS! I'm finding my time very tight these days, but this website will help me by giving me links and ideas all in one place. Julie is doing all the work!

Even more exciting - Binky Patrol was listed among some organizations to contact that help make a difference. Binky Patrol is especially dear to me. Binky Patrol volunteers make binkies (blankets) that go to children who need comforting. Any child, all ages. My dear friend, Susan Finch, is the founder and continues to be the glue that holds it all together. I have a link to the Binky Patrol website on the right edge of my blog.

Long Time No Post - A Funny Story for Today

WOW! It's been a really long time since I've posted.

I hope all who are reading our blog are doing well this Christmas Season.

Much has been happening here at the Ogle home. I'll try to catch up on some of the highlights soon. Nowhere near ready for Christmas, but...it will happen.

Just a quick chuckle for your Friday.

This morning Indy and I were rushing out the door, our usual morning routine. I always pop my head in Esprit's room to let her know we're leaving and wish her a great day. I truly couldn't see Esprit in her bed this morning and actually thought she wasn't there! I stepped inside her room at which point Esprit popped her head up from the other side of her pillow, looking slightly annoyed with me for waking her up completely. She's such a tiny thing she was hidden by her bedding!!! LOL

Anyway, that's not the funny part.

Out the door Indy and I go. I drop him off at school and make my way to the little donut shop near work. Coffee and bagel in hand I step into my car and notice that I am wearing a brown shoe but I have black pants on. This can't be right...then I realize that I have one of each!! LOL,LOL,LOL Literally, I am laughing hysterically as the reality hits me. Same shoe, different colors. First time I've done this. Feeling quite silly and hoping this isn't a sign of age?????

In Memory of Steve Grant

On November 27th, Steve Grant passed away in Costa Mesa, CA of a heart attack. Steve was Norma's husband (Scott's mother). Steve's death was unexpected and sudden.

Norma graciously allowed Steve's daughter, Jody, to have Steve's remains buried at his family's plot in Utah.

We are thankful that Norma and Steve had joined us for Thanksgiving dinner. We don't usually have Thanksgiving here at our home, but this year we did.

Soccer Games Resume

after the season game to a tragic halt for the past two weeks due to the Santiago fire. It was wonderful to see the players and families. Several families live in Foothill Ranch and Portola. Fortunately the stories they have to share are only of close calls and not lost homes.

The boys must have missed playing soccer together. Today's game was FUN to watch. A great exhibition of a team playing as a team. What great passes they were all making. Not a high scoring game ending up at 2-1, but a win is a win no matter the score.

Way to go boys!!!!!

HAPPY 65th ANNIVERSARY!

Aunt Mary and Uncle Louie celebrate 65 years of marriage.



Scott's cousin Lanis and her husband Bob hosted the Anniversary celebration at their home on Saturday. Lanis and Bob always put together a goodtime.

Aunt Mary looked stunning (as she always does) and Uncle Louie looked quite handsome too.

We were so happy to share in this celebration of marriage. Seeing family we don't get to see often enough, meeting family we may have never met and meeting friends that Aunt Mary and Uncle Louie have known as long as they have been married. How blessed we are...

A Great Soccer Game

and a much needed win for the Lake Forest BU13 Plus team.

We knew going into this weeks game against Corona Del Mar that it would be tough. The Corona Del Mar team were in 2nd place going into this weekend (to our 3rd place position), so a win was vital for us. Both teams played a fantastic game of soccer. On both sides the defense worked hard to keep goals at a minimum. We had several lucky breaks and scored more than CDM. Indy made 1 assist! Victory was ours this game!

4 games left in season play. We face Costa Mesa in two weeks. They will be the team to beat.

What a great season. We're a newly formed team this season, with only 3 out of 15 returning Plus players. Exciting!!!!!

I Love The Pumpkin Store

A friend emailed me the above picture last season. I could look at this picture all year long. I do actually. LOL!!!! I really need to have it printed out and framed so I can hang on my wall.