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.