Saturday Photo Op

My daughter Amanda, my friend Nancy and I went out to lunch and shopping Saturday. While walking through the parking lot, we saw this truck loaded down with enough milk and chocolate syrup to serve a playground full of kids! I wonder what their plan was, cuz it looks like they bought a case of wine as well. L.O.L.

This is as close to layer cake as my friend Nancy will ever get. Can you believe she doesn't care for sweets and she's my friend?

Who's Your Fitness Guru?

When I was a kid I used to watch Jack La Lanne on T.V. when television was still only in black and white. I would try to flex my muscles ( I was just a scrawny kid back then) and do jumping Jacks, which I was sure, must have been named after Jack La Lanne. Jack passed away last week on January 23, at the age of 96. He will forever be a fitness legend.


About two years ago, I met Jack La Lanne in person at the Bayside Cafe. He was dining with three lovely women and he lit up the room with his effervescent personality. Mr. Honey and I had just finished eating dinner and we were thinking about ordering the berry cobbler that the Bayside Cafe is so well known for. Then I saw Jack La Lanne walk in the room and at first I wasn't sure it was him. I whispered to Mr. Honey, " I think that's Jack La Lanne that just walked in". He said, " I think you're right".

He sat down at the table right next to ours and we couldn't bring ourselves to order that berry cobbler. It was as if our conscience had just walked in the room. He asked me what he should order and I think I told him the salmon. He was adorable. He made me feel like I was the only woman in the room when he talked to me. I remember him getting up and greeting all the other patrons in the cafe and spreading his inner joy throughout the room. It's funny how one human being could touch the atmosphere with his mere presence. I asked him if he still exercises everyday and he said, "I do exercise everyday and I hate every minute of it" and we all laughed.
I remember thinking we should all live life with such gusto and passion.

The photo above is of Jack when he was very young.

Giving Birth to Your Dreams?

Being of a certain age, I am doing a lot of reflecting on the life I have created thus far and the life I am challenged to live. Giving birth to your dreams can be both challenging and rewarding.

I have always said,"I gave birth to my dreams the day I gave birth to each one of my daughters." They are each so unique in their personalities, their aspirations, their talents, and the lives they have chosen to live. They are my pride and joy. The best job I've ever had or ever will have is having been their mother.

Raising children has been my greatest gift, both to myself and to the everyone that has ever had the pleasure of knowing my girls . That is not to say, raising my girls has always been easy, like when my middle daughter went off to Ireland for a semester of college and decided to shave her head, or when my youngest decided to choose a first boyfriend who was covered in tattoos all over his arms and legs (not that my own mother was happy when I brought my long haired hippie boyfriend home to meet her), or when my eldest daughter decided to tell the world her mother cheats at Scrabble on Facebook. Nevertheless, my dream was always to have children and I have not been disappointed.

Giving birth to dreams is very much like giving birth. There is the excitement of the dream itself, the waiting for the dream to come to fruition and, always, a transition which can be painful but necessary. I guess I must be writing this for myself and for everyone who has ever had dreams and the courage to manifest them. As with raising children, sacrifices will be made, hard work will follow, tough decisions will be made.

My girls have long left the nest and Mr. Honey and I are forging new trails and dreaming new dreams. With a new business before us and the challenges that come with being self employed we are in a new transition phase. Sometimes I feel like a child, kicking and screaming all the way, wanting things to be easy and comfortable, but they're not. I cling to routine and doing things the same way. The thing is, you cannot expect different results if you do things the same way. I guess I'm rambling now, but the point is, I never want to quit having dreams because I'm too afraid of hard work and tough decisions and painful transitions.

All I want are the sweet surprises that life offers when we're willing to live out loud.

The creative life of Kimme Winter

When I met Kimme Winter she was only 15. She hadn't become a jewelery designer yet, but she had a contagious laugh, a fabulous sense of style and the drive to accomplish her dreams. . .

She still does. I can remember sitting in her house when she had returned from a trip to Spain (if my memory serves me) and she had purchased these leather bracelets that had little silver coins and things attached to them. Kimme bought a ton of them. She was planning on selling them here in the States to get braces for her teeth...at least, that is the way I remember it. She was famous for saying "buy low, sell high". I don't think there is anything this woman can't do. She exudes confidence. Whether she's caring for her family, cooking a gourmet meal, decorating her home or designing unique, cutting edge jewelery, she does it with a certain joie de vreve.
The photo above is of Kimme today, as energetic and happy as I remember her when she was fifteen. Kimme has an entrepreneurial spirit and an artist's eye and always has. Not everybody gets that gene, but she did and has passed it down to her own children. There are certain people you meet in your life that live life with passion and energy and Kimme is one of them. I think that is what keeps her so young.





The second photo of Kimme was borrowed off her Facebook page. If you are interested in seeing more of Kimme's jewelery designs you can be find them here.

Days Long Gone

Who isn't familiar with the Grauman's Chinese Theater. When I was a kid I got to see the original Parent Trap with Hayley Mills at this fabulous theater. After the movie was over, my mother would take us to Denny's for a burger.



It's amazing to me that when I think about growing up a great many of my memories are associated with food. I guess that says something about me...L.O.L.

One of my fondest memories is of my sister and I being taken to a place called Trader Vic's as kids (no, not Trader Joe's, Trader Vic's) for dinner. Trader Vic's has locations in a lot of different cities, but this one was in Beverly Hills on the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Santa Monica Blvd, in walking distance from our apartment.

Tahitian or French Polynesian food is known throughout the world because of its exotic fruits, fresh fish and vegetables which are prepared with a strong French influence underlying the Tahitian ingredients. Trader Vic's has a distinctively Polynesian decor and as a kid I thought it was totally exotic. My favorite part of the dinner was when the waiter brought out a bowl of huge fresh strawberries with a bowl of sour cream and brown sugar for dipping. Yum.

I also have fond memories of taking long walks into town from the apartment we lived in growing up. We would discreetly peek into the windows of apartments and houses where the lights were on just to see what kind of decor people had. We would make a game out of guessing what the parents of those families did for a living. Our destination was always the same ice cream parlor called Wil Wrights. They had the most delicious hot fudge sundaes served with real whip cream and a little macaroon cookie that was wrapped in a darling little envelope with the cute little angel on the front that you see below.



And then, there was the Hamburger Hamlet where I spent all my babysitting money on the weekends where we would order burgers and cherry cokes. I believe there are a few Hamburger Hamlets still in existence, but all my favorite ones are now gone.

When my sister and I got colds or just didn't feel well my mother would run out to the Hamlet and bring back the Hamlet's onion fondue soup and egg custard lulu to make us feel better. My mother firmly believed that onions have some magical healing powers and the egg custard had lots of protein from the eggs, even if it was smothered with whip cream and graham cracker crumbs.

The custard below is missing the yummy topping, but you get the idea.
One of my mother's clients was Mrs. Helms from the Helms Bakery empire. I will never forget visiting the house that the family had lived in since their children were born and admiring the family heirlooms and pristine antiques. It made quite an impression on me.

The best thing about the Helm's Bakery was the truck that came around after school everyday in my neighborhood.

This is just how it looked.
The truck was always filled with delicious cream puffs and eclairs and donuts to delight any child appetite.
When I wasn't busy eating I played a whole lot of jacks. In fact, I played for hours on end...just loved that game.
Besides playing Jacks I loved stopping in the Beverly Hilton Hotel to buy gum that looked liked little nuggets of gold. I could pretend I was rich and had won millions panning for gold during the Gold Rush.
Remember these~
Every Saturday my mother had to work privately, after working a forty hour work week to make ends meet, so before my mother went off to see her private clients, she would drop my sister and I off at the local laundry mat to do a weeks worth of laundry. It made my sister and I feel very responsible and grown up.

Mom was no dummy though, she knew how to motivate us. She either gave us money to get a donut at the bakery next to the coin operated laundry mat or she gave us a bag full of donut holes like the ones you see below.

Remember the Beach Boys song that went something like "when her Daddy takes the T-bird away"? Well, my girlfriend had a T-bird, like the one you see below, when we first learned to drive. Eventually, the fun stopped when my girlfriend committed some infraction of the rules and her Daddy did take that T-bird away. Parents were really strict back when I was a teenager. Boo hoo!

The girl standing next to me was my friend that I played Jack's with all the time. To the right of me is Troy Donohue standing next to my sister. He was the teenage heart throb of my day.

I think the car we are standing in front of is the same make and model of the pink Cadillac you see below.

True Confessions

Ten things you may not know about me:
I cheat at Scrabble (not that I'm proud of it).
I care too much what people think of me.
Sometimes I don't wash my face before I go to bed.
I break out in hives almost every day.
I watch way too much T.V.
I cry easily for no reason.
I feel afraid that I'm not smart enough.
I think I bore other people, but I don't bore myself.
I want to travel the world.
I wish I could sing.

Looking Back on 2010

Last January I was starting to train for my job in customer service with William Sonoma. I was pretty stressed anticipating the steep learning curve and wondering if I would survive the challenges that were facing me. My husband's brother and his family had just been with us to celebrate Christmas and my sister in-law was encouraging me to exercise, so we had cleared the living room and did a little salsa to a workout video.



I'm afraid I didn't do to well in the exercise department in 2010, so I am looking forward to a fresh start in 2011 with a renewed commitment to living a healthier lifestyle!

In February, right after the training for my new position was over, Mr. Honey and I headed to Florida to attend my brother in-laws wedding. It was just what I needed, a fabulous change of scenery.
In March after that lovely trip to Florida, Mr. Honey and I celebrated our 37Th year of marriage. I also had my 200Th post around the same time. We spent a wonderful weekend in Ventura at the Cliff House overlooking the ocean.

In April, my eldest daughter and I took a little road trip to Nipomo to the Remnants of the Past Antique Show. We bought ourselves a few little pre-Mothers Day trinkets. It was a fabulous day.
We were also celebrating Amanda's birthday (she took a road trip to see her middle sister for her actual birthday). Her sister Brook was having her first singing debut, so Amanda was going and taking her boys to show her support and celebrating her actual birthday in Tuscon.

Brook was busy practicing for her upcoming performance before her sister arrived.

When Amanda returned we celebrated her eldest son's birthday.


When Mother's Day came around I thought my girl needed a new apron (one that declared her love for her Mama, of course! She's only got a few pairs of jeans, but she has quite a wardrobe of aprons!

Below is the last photo I was able to take of my friend and her mother, because my friend's mother passed away a few days after Mother's Day. Her mother could have been my mother's sister with all they had in common. Sybil and I grew up together, so it was a loss for me too. I was with Sybil when her mother passed and this has made our bond even stronger.

At the end of May, my only surviving uncle turned eighty and I was so blessed to share in his special day. At eighty he hasn't lost his sense of humor and that visor with the fake hair proves it...

We also celebrated my youngest grandson's birthday in June and my middle daughters birthday in June.

July came and went in the blink of a camera, ha ha. I didn't get many pictures, but these ranier cherries were fabulous and they came and went faster than July.

The most important thing that happened in July was that Mr.Honey opened his own business with his long time friend Eric Geye. After being out of work for almost two years this was a huge leap of faith.


In August, I knew Mr. Honey would be too busy with his new business to help me celebrate my birthday, so I flew off to Tuscon to celebrate with my middle daughter. She was busy too, getting ready for her big move to Boston in September, but she took good care of her Mama and we had a relaxing special time together.


In September I went to a special luncheon commemorating the loss of a dear friend's sister, who lost her battle with cancer in December and whose birthday would have been September 25.

Around the same time my daughter packed her belongings and headed East for Boston. The photo below was taken on the east coast where she resides two blocks from the ocean.

In October my middle grandson turned eight. He's such a great kid!


In November all my girls were home to celebrate their Dad's sixtieth birthday. This was a rare photo op, I'm telling ya!

We had a big birthday bash with friends that came from everywhere to be with us to give Mr. Honey a proper birthday bash! It is imperative that we celebrate life because none of us knows how long we have. Within a week of Mr. Honey's birthday a friend and a relative died unexpectedly, so live life out loud folks!

Shortly after Mr. Honey's birthday came Thanksgiving, and although my middle daughter couldn't make it home for Christmas (the first Christmas ever spent away from family in her entire life) my youngest came home and gave her nephews extra love. These boys love their aunties!

Then in December my friend hosted her annual Christmas tea and this year she had her new granddaughter to show off to all the guests.

My grandsons had parts in the Christmas pageant at their church and the two older ones had singing parts. It was the highlight of Christmas for their Nana!

I'm so glad I've blogged this year, because my memory "ain't" what it used to be and I don't want to forget any of 2010's most special moments!

Happy New Year 2011

I decided to start the morning off with a high protein breakfast for New Years day, so I got up and made a fritata and invited my daughter, her husband, and their boys, over to join me.

This fritata was made with a layer of brown rice on the bottom of the pan to start. Then I fried up some bacon, whipped together a dozen eggs with a cup of half and half, and laid a layer of uncooked asparagus spears on top of the rice. After the asparagus came a layer of shredded cheddar cheese. I poured the egg mixture on top and baked at 375degrees for about 45 minutes.
Voila~breakfast was ready.

Mr. Honey left for a Jeep run in Calico and took our middle grandson with him. Our eldest grandson stayed home with an ear ache and cold. The littlest is never found too far from his Mama (this too shall pass, but for now it's the sweet reward of having a youngest in the family).

Since Mr. Honey was out of town and I've never been known for staying up until midnight on New Year's Eve I rang in the new year eating beef bourguignon that my daughter (who lives next door) made and brought over. Now that's the way to end the year, if you ask me.

I forgot to take the photo of the beef bourguignon when it was hot and bubbly, so it doesn't look near as yummy as it did before it sat in the fridge all night.

My grandson thought playing scrabble with his Nana would be the best way to end the year...so that's what we did. How did you spend your New Year's Eve?