Creamy Lemon Squares (Pie)

February 28, 2011

Tonight I made a creamy lemon pie (the recipe said to make lemon squares, but I used a pie plate instead of a square one).  It was fun to get in the kitchen and bake, especially because the oven helped to heat up my apartment! 

Here's the final product.  I don't get to taste it yet, because it is for our lunch tomorrow at school, but I'll let you know how it turns out, and what the others think of it too.  Can't wait!!
PS. it's supposed to be "healthy" too, only 170 calories per serving, don't know how healthy that really is...

Oscar Night

February 27, 2011

Who needs to wear fancy dresses and walk down the red carpet?!?!  We can enjoy the Oscars from the comfort of our cozy homes, in our pjs, all snuggled up in blankets! And with super yummy snacks!

We also did a fun Oscar game, trying to pick who we thought would win.  I did OK.  I got 14 out of 24.  There was even a prize for the winner, who was Laura.  She got 15 right, I was sooooo close!

I kept thinking I would catch up to her, but she sure knows how to pick the winners!  At first I was sad to have lost by one point, then I thought we should just rip her paper up because she wasn't there to claim her prize!

But in the end I was proud of Laura for doing so well on the game!  Thanks Leah and Steph for a fun Oscar night! 

Snow in Burbank!!

February 26, 2011
To most people snow is not that big of a deal.  But it doesn't snow in LA.  Ever.  Well, today I was in Burbank (just 12 miles away from downtown Los Angeles), and it snowed!  I could not believe it, so I took some pictures!

We we shopping in the mall in Burbank, when we happened to walk past the doors, and saw something white falling from the sky.  We had to go see if our eyes were telling the truth, so we ran out the doors and sure enough, snow!

As we walked back to our car, we realized how much it actually had snowed during the afternoon.  This car was covered in snow, and so were many others as we drove to our next stop.

The mountains weren't covered in snow, but they were dusted with it.  And the little airplanes in the picture had snow on them too!

And we saw a beautiful rainbow! What a great adventure we had today, one we never expected to have!

Singin' in the Rain

February 25, 2011

Doodle-oo-do-doodle-doodle-oo-doodle

"I walk down the lane, with a happy refrain just singin', singin' in the rain."

I went for a little walk in the rain this evening (just down the street to borrow a movie from a friend!).  I couldn't help but start singing "Singin' in the Rain" as I was walking down the street.  It was all I could do to keep from kicking the puddles and spinning around light posts...  : )

Get Your Boots On

February 24, 2011

We're getting ready for more rain this weekend!  I had to go find my rain boots in the car and get my umbrella out from last weekend.  I didn't get to wear my rain boots last weekend because I stayed in most of the time it was raining, or the rain snuck up on me while I was already out and I missed my chance to wear them.  But don't worry, this weekend I will be ready for the rain, with my boots on! 

Baby Brother's Birthday

February 23, 2011
Today is my little brother's birthday.  I can't believe he's 33 today!  It's so crazy to think that the little baby boy in the pictures is all grown up with a family of his own.  

 I have loved every minute being his sister, well maybe not every single minute, but the majority of them.  I'm so thankful for my brother and the love and life that he brings with him everywhere he goes.  

Happy Birthday Billy!!

Billy with his beautiful family, Gina, Hannah and Georgia.  

PS: I did take these pictures today!  They are pictures of old pictures I have...

Staff Meeting

February 22, 2011

On Tuesdays we have our weekly staff meeting.  School gets out an hour early so we can spend time together as a staff, discussing school issues, looking forward to future events and having fun together.  I am so thankful that I can say I work at a place where I love my co-workers and I enjoy spending time with them, even in meetings!!

White Mountains

February 21, 2011
Wow!  Both yesterday and today I was awe struck by the white mountain behind LA.  Friday and Saturday we had a huge storm, that brought rain to the city and snow to the mountains.  I finally had to pull over and take some pictures.

Family Get-together

February 20, 2011
Today we celebrated my brother's birthday!!

I went up to Ventura for the day, and had a fun day hanging out with my family, celebrating the day Billy was born (his actual birthday is Feb. 23).
Some fun family pictures of the day: 

Billy and Gina

Luke, Georgia and I.  Well, half of Luke...

Vicki, Heidi and Luke

And Georgia lost her first tooth!  How exciting!!

Picnic in the Living Room

February 19, 2011

On a rainy Saturday, I decided to stay home and have a picnic in my living room.  I watched a movie and ate homemade macaroni and cheese, salad and iced tea.  Thanks to our maintenance guys my heater works now, so I was nice and cozy!  (I even copied a restaurant we had recently been to with the carafe of iced tea!)  It was a relaxing and much needed day off!

Can't Take My Eyes Off the Skies

February 18, 2011

Another "clouds" picture.  I can't help it!  The sky has been amazing the past few days and I can't stop taking pictures of it.  It was supposed to rain all day, but I woke up to beautiful blue skies.  Throughout the day, the clouds kept rolling in, giving us a spectacular show before the rain started. 

Even Solomon in all His Splendor Was Not Dressed Like One of These

February 17, 2011

I love flowers!  All kinds of flowers!  One of my favorite places in LA is the flower district.  I love walking down the isles and isles of flowers.  These orchids were a birthday gift, from one of my great friends, and I love them! 

The Silver Lining

February 16, 2011

My favorite part of a rainy day is the sky once the rain has stopped.  Today the clouds were gorgeous!  I was walking to school after the rain had stopped and the sky had started to clear up, and I almost didn't make it back.  I was so distracted by the beauty of the big puffy white clouds and the amazing sky that kept changing every second as the sun was shinning on the moving clouds, and I just had to take some pictures.  Now you get to see one.  Beautiful!!

What Do You Do With a Free Afternoon?

February 15, 2011
You read of course!

I love books!  This is just one of many book shelves in my house  (and you don't want to see the bookshelves and boxes of books in my classroom).  Last weekend, when I was changing the sheets I even found three books hidden away in the blankets...  : )

Every Tuesday school gets out at 2 so we can have our weekly staff meeting.  Today our wonderful principal canceled our meeting, so we had a free afternoon.  I was so thankful!  After a few really busy weeks, with not much free time, I finally was able to sit and read for a long period of time, and I loved it!  I'm finally reading the third book in the "Girl With a Dragon Tattoo" series.  It's good, but now I just want to know how it all ends.   

Parent Date Night

February 14, 2011

Tonight we had a Valentine's Dinner at school for the parents of our students.  It was so great to see all who came to the dinner having a wonderful date night.  We had tables for two, or group tables: the parent's got to decide which tables they wanted to sit at, and child care in the gym so they could have a romantic dinner without their children! 

 

The CC looked amazing, like a fancy restaurant.  Sadly I didn't take many pictures of the ambiance, because I wanted pictures of the people.  But it was beautiful in there!

Laura and Jen were our wonderful greeters/seaters/hostesses.  They had this cute area to stand in and welcome the guests.  They did a great job!

All of our staff pitched in to make this night extra special for our parents.  We had servers, dish washers, child care workers, and runners who helped with just about anything!  Everyone did a great job and we had a great first LACS Parent Valentine Date Night. <3

Urban Photo Exploration Part 1

February 13, 2011
Today we went on a bike adventure around Los Angeles.  It was called the Urban Photo Exploration (named by Bryan).  We rode our bikes around downtown LA and stopped to take pictures whenever we saw something interesting. 

Here we go!  Riding around downtown, getting ready to take some pictures.

 First we saw  the Nokia theater, where the Grammy's are taking place today.  The street was closed to cars, except to limos, and there were lines of people all dressed up getting ready to go into the theater for the show.  We didn't see anyone famous though.

These are just some of my favorite shots of the day:

 Here are my fellow explorers: Leah, Helen, Bryan and Doug!  What a great day, I look forward to "Urban Photo Exploration Part 2"...

Girls Night Out

February 12, 2011
 Tonight we had a girls night out, technically to celebrate Valentine's Day all together, but really because Mike is out of town and he wanted Mer to do something fun with us girls while he was gone.  We went to a Mexican food restaurant called Garden of Taxco.  It was pretty amazing.  First of all there are no menus, there is just one man who goes from table to table to tell you what there is to eat, so you better listen up!   You get to choose beef, chicken or fish, with different types of sauces or seasonings, which are not hot, they're spiiiiiiiiiicy.  Your meals come with 5 courses.

First course: quesadilla with guacamole.

Second course: Albondigas soup

Thrid course: Chicken enchilada or beef taquito, depending on the meat that you ordered for your main dish.

 Fourth course: your main meat choice with beans and rice or veggies.  Mer and Steph got chicken, Leah got beef and I got fish, we all tasted each others and they were all really good!

Fifth course: banana's in banana whipped cream for dessert.  Super tastey!  

 Since it was the last day of my birthday celebration week, the girls let our waiters know, and they came over and sang the traditional Mexican birthday song, and happy birthday, with lots of enthusiasm and a little extra spice.  : )

We even got an extra dessert treat!  It was such a fun night, laughing and having fun with the girls.  Thanks Mike for treating us to such a great night out!