Memorial Day Weekend

I had a fun filled Memorial Day weekend with lots of eating, exercising and hanging out with friends.

Friday night, my friends Nikki and Kim, and Nikki's daughter and her friend and I went to Simi Valley to Nikki's favorite pizza place, called Chi Chi's. It was some yummy pizza. We went to the mall afterwards and walked around, getting a piece of chocolate at the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.

Saturday, I walked up Laguna Peak with Nikki and Kim. For those of you who don't know, it's about 5 miles round trip, up and down a steep hill near Pt. Mugu. After that, my running partner, Kelly and my sister and I went on a mission for a burger. Kelly found this list of the top 20 burgers in the country and she is determined to eat them all. We were supposed to go to this place in Hollywood, called Ketchup (even though it's not on the list), but they weren't open for lunch, so we went to Houston's in Santa Monica, which is on the list. Yum! It was an excellent burger with great service. I recommend it. I was doing a search for it online and found out that celebrities eat there too, not that that's important or anything. So after that, we became real tourists and stood in line for 30 minutes for cupcakes at Sprinkles in Beverly Hills. It is the thing to do now apparently. See the picture above...

Sunday, I got to help teach the kids at church and then I enjoyed the continuing series in the Book of Acts that we are going through at church. Sunday was also a day of rest, from both pigging out and exercising.

Monday, I got up early to meet my running/walking group. In case you haven't heard, I signed up to do a 1/2 marathon through Disneyland on Labor Day weekend! So I am training my little shoes off nowadays. We ran 5.5 miles on Monday and we're doing well, right on schedule with aches and pains and all. But hey, no pain, no gain, right? Right...ask me tomorrow after another 5.5. miles tonight....anyway, after my run, my friends, Kim B, Karen, Karen's friend Marilyn and my sister and I went up to Santa Barbara to see the chalk drawing festival, I Madonarri. There was some artsy talent and creativity there, which I can admire because I have little. Then we ate at a restaurant in Summerland on the way home. All in all, a great weekend!

101 Things

My parents came to visit this weekend. It is always a challenge to figure out what to do while they are here. Lately, we eat out, a lot. We nap, a lot. We do yard work at Jenny's house. We usually watch a NASCAR race.

So this time, I had some more ideas. I wanted to go see the musical "Wicked" down in Hollywood, but by the time we looked at tickets, they didn't have any of the cheap ones left. I also had a list that I pulled off the internet of 101 things to do and see in Ventura County. We made a good dent in the list. We went to the Union Oil Museum in Santa Paula, got a bag of fresh oranges from a Fillmore fruit stand, found the Fillmore fish hatchery, saw the Ojai Valley from the stop along the Dennison Grade, saw downtown Ojai, did the drive from Santa Paula to Fillmore, found the Motorcycle Monument:The Warning, and saw a view of the city from Grant Park. All in all, we had a really nice relaxing weekend, and we ate out a lot, napped some, did some yard work, and even watched the NASCAR race Saturday night.

News

The trip to Georgia and South Carolina was nice. It was so good to see my old college buds, Aaron and his wife, Larry, Anthony, Jeff, and of course Mike and his new wife Jenny. The wedding was beautiful and the scenery was incredible. I wish them the best.

I also got to see part of my family that I don't get to see very often. My Uncle Rich, Aunt Sara, pregnant cousin Christine and her husband Frank, cousin Keith and his two boys Ethan and Colin, and Keith's girlfriend Nicole and daughter Natalie. We ate some good food and got to experience a little of life in the South.

And, here's the latest, and unfortunately, it's not great news. After a lot of talking, Marcus and I ended our relationship last week. There isn't much to say, so I won't go into many details here. I am sad and hurt, but I know it's for the best. Thank you to all my friends and family who have been so supportive.

On top of that, my sister lost her job on Friday. What a week we have had. Fortunately, mom and dad are coming this week, so there is something to look forward to and be excited about. Please pray for peace for my family. It seems we are supposed to go through these trials right now and God is teaching us something. We know He is in control, even though it's difficult right now.