Happy Thanksgiving!

Lance and I wanted to wish all of our friends and family a very happy Thanksgiving! We had a very busy day working at Marie Callendar's getting all the customers pies and feast orders ready. Overall the day was a success and even though the rain tried to make it difficult, everyone seemed very happy with how things went.

After our long shift we headed over to my Mom and Dad's for a delicious home made meal! My Mom out did herself again and we are stuffed. I meant to take a picture of the table before we all dug in, but my stomach was talking too loudly and I forgot. So, enjoy the pictures of the leftovers! I love Thanksgiving Day leftovers!! =)

Love to you all,
Suzanne and Lance

P.S. Disregard the cheerios. They were not part of the Thanksgiving Day feast! hahahaha

Camping

Well last weekend Lance's old busser friends got together for a camping trip. Cat and Lance left on Friday to head down to meet everyone at the campsite. They were camping at a site not too far away from Camp Pendleton near the beach. While the winds and wild fires were raging in inland Orange County, the OC beaches were beautiful. Clear blue skies, no wind or fire. Thankfully!

I joined the group Saturday night after work. This was the first time Lance and I in our 4 1/2 years of dating have ever been camping together. Everytime he has gone before I have had work or other obligations and I haven't been able to go. This time though, they were close enough for me to drive down and meet them for the evening.

Seeing everybody was great and we had a lot of fun. Apparently no one takes pictures while camping though, unless something really funny happens. Like so.......

Rod left his $80 sunglasses on top of his lantern and then proceeded to light it. He left to go to the bathroom and while he was gone his fuel burned out and the lamp went off. Tom jumped up and then turned on his lantern. When Rod returned he said, did my lamp burn out? We told him yes and then all of the sudden he says, holy S*^t! All of us thought geez Rod we have another lantern it's no big deal. Then that's when he showed us his sunglasses. We all about died laughing. Why he didn't take them off when he lit the lantern we'll never know! That will definitely be a camping story we will be talking about for years to come!

The only other picture that Cat took was of me and Lance finally getting to go camping together. It was lots of fun and I can't wait until we get to do it again!

California Burning

I'm sure most of you have heard by now that we had some pretty devestating wild fires last weekend. This coming weekend is supposed to be the same kind of dry/windy weather conditions and I pray we don't see a repeat of last weekend!

The fire nearest to us is called the Freeway Complex Fire. This fire was so scary because it was moving so fast and it was so unpredictable. We were actually camping last weekend when the fire started to head into Orange County heading down the freeway towards Cat's house. We decided we should pack up her pictures and her computer just to be on the safe side. On our way over there Lance snapped some pictures from her car. It was horrible. The smoke was so think and nasty and blowing right at us. As I was driving into the smoke and ash I felt so sorry for the people a few miles ahead who were watching their houses burn. It was really sad!

When we pulled up to Cat's house to get some of her things it looked it was nighttime when it was actually only early afternoon. Such an errie feeling!

After grabbing some of her things, which I might note that she only grabbed two days worth of work clothes, but she did grab all of her Angels baseball jersey and jackets. Priorities I tell you priorities! =) Anyway, we headed down to the campsite (which will be tomorrows blog) and enjoyed our evening. When Cat headed back home on Sunday, the wind had shifted and the skies were blue again.

Unfortunately with the wind shift, the fire and smoke was causing havoc in Diamond Bar; causing many evacuations and close calls. Luckily though no homes lost there. Other parts of Orange County didn't do so well and over all I think a couple hundred homes were lost. It seems like these days "fire season" is all year round which is a bummer. I guess it's just part of living in So Cal.

Lance Wins!

Well, it came down to a stressful Monday Night Football game, but Lance won! Credits of course! As discussed in a previous blog, gambling is illegal here in Cali.......but who cares, he won! $110 big ones! And oh boy was he waiting for this. It pained him ever so slightly that I had won the pool and he hadn't. hahahaha

Of course last night was a little bitter sweet because he needed Cleveland to win and they were playing MY Buffalo Bills. I bit the bullet and rooted for Cleveland anyways because let's be real people, we are saving for a wedding, and Buffalo is going no where fast this year anyways!

Good job Lance! And GO BUFFALO!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I know I'm a few days late posting this to the web but I wanted to wish my Mom a very happy birthday! Her birthday was November 8th and we had a jam packed day. We spent 4 hours dress shopping and I found the most beautiful dress ever! Thanks for helping me decide on such a beautiful dress Mom!

Mom,
I know this sounds cliche, but thanks for always being there. It took growing up and becoming an adult to fully appreciate all you have done for me (and Cat and Rachel too of course!! hahaha). You were at every parent/teacher conference (some of which we didn't want you to be at!), you were at every music performance, volleyball game, swimming meet and all the other million things we did growing up. You bussed us around, let our friends spend the night, and were the mom all our friends loved and wanted to hang out with.

As an adult I know I can call whenever I need to vent or cry or share great news. You don't judge, you just listen and offer support. Your support is one of the greatest gifts in my life. I love you more than I'll ever be able to express. There aren't enough thank you's out there to be given.

Thank you a million times over. I love you!
Love, Suzanne
P.S. You better leave a comment! =)

Happy Halloween!

Today for Halloween Lance and I decided we would go apple picking! We completely stole the idea from Ryan and Emma's blog so stop by their blog if you're looking for cool things to do! =) When I first read their blog about going apple picking I thought to myself how cool would that be! But I never really thought us Orange County kids would have a place close enough for us to visit. Well, pretty much I had never thought about apple picking ever before until I read their blog. Thanks to the power of googling we found Riley's farm.

We both had the day off today so we got up, had some breakfast and headed out of the city. It took us about an hour and a half to get there but it was a part of California neither Lance or myself have explored before. The whole picking process was actually really quick so we decided when we go back, we are going to go on a day that they have more things to pick. Today they only had pumpkins and apples. Other times of the year they have blackberries, raspberries, pears etc. That way we can head up there and pick a whole bunch of stuff!

We had a lot of fun picking our own apples and we just had one a little bit ago and it was very yummy! Hopefully Emma will post some apple recipes on her food blog to help me use all these apples!! ;-)

Here are some pick-tures (get it?? hahaha)
This is the first apple I picked and can you tell I was excited??


It sure is a good thing I brought the tall guy with me! Apple picking is not a thing for short people to do. I pretty much pointed out apples I thought would be good and Lance grabbed them for me!

Here is our half full bag.....

And our very full bag!!!

Here is Lance at the pumpkin patch. We didn't buy any pumpkins this year, but they sure had some cool looking ones!


This was the general store of the farm. They said the barn was built in 1880. Lance captured the beautiful hills behind the barn too!
We saw this goat on the way out and it made us laugh. He's just so funny looking. I've never seen a goat like that before. He did have the same colors as our Murphy but Murphy isn't so spotty. Maybe the goat thought he was a cow???

We also saw this beautiful house on the way back home. Lance and I decided that if we ever win the lottery we want a house built like this one. We don't want to buy this one because it's in the middle of nowhere. And frankly, we are city folk. We did have a great time on the farm though! The weather was fabulous at 75 degrees and we were able to pick a bunch of really delicious granny smith apples!

Financial Crisis aka Suzanne's Rant

I can't believe what has been happening with the stock market this last week. I've lost 45% of my 401k in a week. In one stinking week. I've been working the last 10 years to have my 401k cut practically in half in one week. And there are people out there who have it a lot worse than me. At least I'm not planning on retiring soon. How can those people retire soon? They must have no money left. It's so sad.

I've been watching all the shows on TV that have been trying to explain what is going on. And how come we have found ourselves in this predicament. On one of the Oprah's they called us (the middle class population) Annie. What I realized after watching that show is that I'm pissed at Annie. I'm pissed at the banks and the financial institutions. I'm pissed that our government is bailing out these companies and the CEO's are spending $400,000+ for spas and vacations. I'm pissed that the banks went out and offered loans to Annie's who could not afford them. I'm pissed at Annie for taking those loans and now Annie can't make the loan payments.

Lance and I didn't go out and get a home loan, because we knew we couldn't afford it. We didn't go out and buy $50,000 cars and run up our credit card bills because we knew we couldn't afford it. It makes me irate that certain politicians want to buy out home loans for the people that are foreclosing on their property. Why? So they can stay in their homes and my taxes can go up? No thank you. So that the bank can still make their profit off of the loan? Maybe the bank should not have loaned so much money out to high risk Annie's!

Ok, I think I'm done ranting. Thank you for letting me get that off my chest. Now, I'm going to stuff my money under my mattress. I kid I kid things aren't that bad..............yet! And I promise to not use this blog as a place where I rant....too often! And I promise not to spew my political views........too often! Hopefully everyone will be voting in a few weeks!

The Fat Lady Sang....Loudly

Wow. Sad. Pathetic. Enough said.

Hunt for a RED October

The Angels post season started last Wednesday and oh my goodness has it been a dismal post season so far. The Angels finished the season with the best record in baseball. They clinched the American League West Championship in early September, way before all the other teams clinched. On paper they are the best team in baseball. On the field, they sure didn't look like the best team in baseball! We lost our first two games against Boston on Wednesday and Friday which just blew my mind! This is only a best of 5 series how could we have lost the first two games. Which were played here at home too! During the first game of the series Lance and I got to hold the flag again. My dad did it with us this time and we all had a great timeLance, my dad and I are all on the left hand side of the flag. Lance is the first person down there, I'm the 3rd tiny speck above him and my dad is the 5th tiny speck above me! I just love this picture though, it just shows how huge this flag is and how many people it takes to pull it off!

The Angels FINALLY pulled off a victory last night. It took them 12 horrible innings, but they finally did it. We play Boston again tonight in Boston and it's do or die. I would love for the Angels to come home on Wednesday with the series all tied up!

Tonight is also Monday Night Football and Lance and I will be wildly rooting for Minnesota. Not because we are Minnesota fans, oh no! We are Buffalo Bills fans! I use "we" loosely here. Lance is a dumb Dallas fan! =) Baseball season is not even over yet though so I can't begin the Dallas bashing until November. Wait for it, it will come! So, back to rooting for the Vikings. Lance and I are in a weekly football pool and it looks as though this week, I am in the running for er.....um..... some credits! We don't live in Nevada, and betting is illegal here, so credits it is! I'm tied with 5 other people going into tonights game and those 5 all picked New Orleans to win. So, if the Vikings do win, I look like a genius. If they lose, well..........

When I do my picks, I do them in about 30 seconds. I go down the list and check off my teams I think are going to win. Lance, well, he takes the whole week to get his picks in. He studies the teams records, and their roster and their injuries. Blah blah blah looks like my way worked this week! hahahaha GO VIKINGS!!!!!!!!

Ryan, Lance and I were wishing your Cubs would continue on to the World Series so you could come out here and watch an Angels/Cubs world series. Looks like the Dodgers kept that from happening! We are excited for the Dodgers though even though Cubs fans have been waiting 100 years for a trip to the world series. I wonder how many it will actually be until they make it there and win it? When they finally get the goat off their back!! =) Maybe next year you can join us for a Angels/Cubs world series!!! The Angels will win of course!! hahahahaha

Alright everyone cross your fingers, toes, legs, arms and anything else you can cross and send good mo-jo that the Angels and Vikings win! For those of you who just don't give a darn, I'll keep you posted, because I know deep down you do! =P

Rally Monday

Well friends, the baseball post season is upon us. And I am SOOOOOO excited! Last Monday the Angels held their annual Angels Rally. It's now officially an "annual" rally since they had one last year. I guess if one year they don't make the playoffs, well then, no need for a rally..........but I don't see that happening in the near future....hopefully! =)

Monday's rally produced tons of Angel fans and oddly enough a few Boston fans. How much confidence do you have to show up to a Angels rally with 20,000 Angel fans wearing a Boston hat and jersey??!!??!!

The best part of the rally was when Bobby Gritch (former Angel circa mid 80's) got on the stage grabbed the microphone and yells, "give me a A". Crowd "AAAAAAA". Bobby, "give me a N". Crowd "NNNNNNN" So on and so forth. The problem with his cheer was that he spelled Angels A.N.G.L.S. hhhmmm When he followed the G with the L the crowd kind of looked at each other with the funniest look on all of our faces! At the end he yells "What's that spell?" And then I yelled, "Not Angels!!!"

This years rally was super cool because they actually had active players. Last year they only had former players. Here are some pictures of the players that showed up.

Mike Napoli

Howie Kendric Jeff MathisTorii Hunter

Smashmouth performed and they were pretty darn horrible! They only have a few hits and those hits are much better heard on the radio or CD! Live, well, they pretty much sucked!

You can't really see them so well from this shot. That's why I took all the players pictures off of the jumbo tron. We were sitting on the side of the stage so it was hard to get any really good pictures.

Here are the players revealing the new 2008 American League West Champions banner!

Rachel and I were the only ones that went to the rally. Lance really wanted to, but he had work. Cat, well, she must not be a real Angel fan since boys seem to be more important than supporting your Angels. Hehehehehe It's my blog and I get to say whatever I want to say!!! hehehehehe
We had fun together anyway, even though Cat was too busy for us!

Tonight the Angels begin game 1 against Boston. Lance, Rachel, Dad, Cat and I will be there. All dressed in red with 44,000 of our closest friends! Let's hope for another halo victory!!!

Jared's Birthday Bash

Well, we are alive and kicking even though it's been awhile since updates. We both have been super busy, but unfortunately, it hasn't been with anything exciting! hahahaha Lance and I are both working two jobs right now so there really hasn't been any free time to do exciting things.

On September 20, Jared celebrated his 30th birthday and Lance was actually able to attend! The month of September is just absolutely crazy in our circle of friends because a whole bunch of them all have birthdays in September. So, Tracy, Jared, Nicole, Marlana, Minh, Liz, Michelle, Tamara, Rhonda and Tara (I really hope I didn't forget anybody!!) we just wanted to wish you a happy birthday! Sorry we couldn't attend all the events for every persons birthday!

Here are some pictures from Jared's b-day.

Here is Jared showing off his ice tea. He doesn't drink, we've all tried to be bad influences on him, but he just won't budge! =0)

Here is Jared and his awesome fiance' Bindi. They are getting hitched in November of this year. It should be a really fun wedding. Wait............didn't they get engaged after Tracy and Jesse??? But yet, they are getting married before them...........hhhmmm

Jared's mom had the cake place re-create Jared's 1st birthday cake.

Where do you find room to put 30 candles??? =o) And for the record, it took him 2 tries to blow the whole thing out. hahahaha

Here we are being dorks. Enough said!

Well, I just got back into town last night after being in Colorado for a few days. I have a bunch of pictures and stories to blog about on that trip. Hopefully I will be getting to that soon. Don't be too shocked but I think I have about 5 new blog posts to get done! hahahaha Hope everyone is doing well! Love, Suzanne

Our Wedding Blog

Lance and I have tried a few different sites to host our main wedding website. We really couldn't find one that was just perfect for us, so we decided to start another blog! You can visit our new wedding blog here. Not all of our family and friends will be in California as the planning continues so this will help keep everybody updated on the events and stresses of our upcoming big day. I want to be able to journal this wedding planning journey so when we have children, I can print it out and tell them to elope! I kid I kid!!! I'm having a great time planning and everything is coming along great so far.

We would like to thank everybody again for their support and help as we plan this wedding. We definitely could not do it without all of you! Love, Suzanne

More Baseball

Is there really anything else to do during the summer but go to baseball games? I think not! The Angels were out of town a few weeks ago so Cat invited me to a Dodger game. I normally go to at least one or two Dodger games a year since they are fun, but not nearly as fun as Angel games!

Cat was given some awesome tickets right behind home plate and I was not about to turn those down! We met at my Mom and Dads house and practically bathed in sun screen since it was a Sunday afternoon game. When we got to the stadium the temperature on my car said it was 95 degrees.

Here are a few pictures from the game!

This picture below is of myself and Cat sitting in our "fake" seats. See, when we got to the game we had tickets for the seats directly behind the row we are sitting in. You can see, them over our shoulders. Yep, that's them, in the shade! I was so excited, but my 'I want to sit in the sun and get burned sister of mine' wasn't so excited. So after some whining and begging and some more whining, I moved up a row with her. So to put into perspective how hot it was that day check out the very first picture on this page. Look at the guy in the pinkish/reddish shirt behind me (I'm in the green). He looks a little hot! The seat behind us is also important because at one point we had a foul ball come our way. We had seen a few balls heading our direction over the course of the game, but this one was coming right at us. Where did it land? In the seat Cat made me move from. I couldn't believe it! It could have been my first foul ball at a baseball game. I've been to a million games over my life time and have never caught a foul ball or a home run ball. This was my chance, but it bounced in my empty seat and into the next row. Cat swears I would have never caught it even if I was sitting there which is not true at all! I know I would have caught that ball! hahahahaha

We had a great time at the game and the Dodgers even won!!!

Ok, this next picture trips me out. Can you guess who is who? On our way back to my car I wanted to take a picture of us in front of the Think Blue sign. After we took it I started laughing because we look so much alike even I did a double take! I know I know, we are twins so of course we look alike, but most of the time we look different, at least I think we do!

Well the game was a blast and we retired our Dodger hats until next year.....unless we get some more great tickets, then we'll pull them out of retirement!

The Accident

So, a few weeks ago (on Rachel's birthday actually) my Dad was driving to work as he has for the last 38 years. Dad has worked at the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant since long before I was born! And for as long as I can remember he's been leaving the house before the sun comes up.

July 30, 2008 was no different. He made his coffee, ate some breakfast and was on the road to start his 39 mile one way journey. He was traveling down the 5 South in the fast lane (going the speed limit I'm sure!! hahaha) when he noticed a 2 gallon gas can sitting in the middle of the lane. It fell off of a truck/car driving in front of him and he had no time to try to swerve and avoid it. One would hope that when he hit it, it would just bounce off and leave a dent. Sure, he would have been upset. He loves his car, he takes great care of it and who would want a big gas can size dent in their car??? But, I think he would have traded the dent for what he got. This.....

When Dad's car hit the gas can unfortunately it got wedged underneath his car and wouldn't come off. At one point he said he looked in his rearview mirror and saw a line of flames following him down the fast lane because the fuel was leaking out. He pulled over to the emergency lane and tried for a minute or so to dislodge the gas can. Driving back and forth just trying to get it to come off so he could try to keep his car from completely burning up. No such luck that gas can was not coming off no matter how hard he tried. When the flames reached his side mirrors he decided it was time to get out of the car. Now, one might be asking, why the heck was he in the car long enough to watch the flames come up to the side mirrors! I said the same thing. I would have been out of that car the second I saw the flames in my rearview mirror. He's a stubborn man what can I say!?!?!?!

The fire department came and put the fire out. They had to use a 2x4 to pry the gas can off of the car. You can see the gas can in the 3rd picture on the upper right hand side. It's pretty unrecognizable!

Somehow, my Dad remained calm enough to get all of his personal things out of the car which is something that probably would not have crossed my mind! I still can't believe he was still driving the car while it was on fire!

We all got a present on Rachel's birthday this year and that present was that my Dad was OK. A little frazzeled after the whole ordeal but OK nontheless. He gave us a good scare that's for sure. Oh, and he made the news! My Mom was watching the news that morning when they reported a car fire on the 5 South. It's not the claim to fame he really wanted though!

He won't tell us how much longer he's going to make his drive to San Onofre, but if he keeps pulling Hollywood stunts like this I may go sign his retirement papers for him!

Happy Birthday Mom!

I just wanted to say happy birthday to the best mom in the world! Now that we have a blog we can write about all kinds of stuff so why not tell the ones we love how we feel? Mom, you have always supported me in everything I do no matter if you agreed or not! You have always given me the kind of advice that has helped me become the person I am today. Although I may be a little far from home you can always know I am not really that far away. I hope you had a great day and enjoy the rest of your time in Vegas!! Lance

New Layout

Ok, kind of gilry I know, but it's such a pretty purple! =) I figured Lance rarely updates this blog so I'll call it my own and add a little purple to our page......ok a LOT of purple!!! I got the idea from Stephanie's cool page and now I'm addicted to all the cool layouts they have out there.

Hopefully more postings to come, things have just been very dull around our neck of the woods which is how we like it! I've been working 7 days a week for the past month now so we haven't had too much time to do anything exciting.

Hope everyone is doing well! Love, Suzanne

Happy Birthday Rachel!!

Rachel,
27 years ago you were gearing up for your life to change forever! 6 months from today you were going to be the big sister of twin girls. Oh, how you must have felt so lucky! hehehehe You were 9 years old and you must have been so excited......until we came home. Being that you were an only child for 9 1/2 years until we came along, it seems as though you adjusted to it well. You still talk to us so that's always a good sign! =)

Some of my favorite memories growing up were going to your apartment and spending the night. I remember a lot of getting into trouble (thanks to Cat! hehehehe) and many sleepless nights! You were more than an older sister, you were a parental figure. Definitely bossing us around ALL THE TIME. I guess that's the badge you get when you are the oldest!

As we got older you were always there for us. Taking us places, attending our volleyball/basketball games and swim meets. Making many many trips to Colorado and even going to Hawaii with us after we graduated high school. (I know we really had to twist your arm on that one!) Endless nertz games, movie nights and scavenger hunts were always loads of fun too. Nobody can plan a party like Rachel can plan a party that's for sure!

After high school you let me live with you while I tested being on my own. With you working days and me working nights during that time it sure made for a funny living situation. We never saw each other! Except for those nights we would try to watch a movie and I would fall asleep 10 minutes after it started. You never got mad when I would call you into the room to have you turn out the lights but you learned quick, and just stopped coming in! I always knew you had my back and that was such a safe feeling to have at 18 and I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.

Growing into a young adult with you by my side has been great. You are always there to share laughs with and to shed tears when tears need to be shed. You know just the right moment to break out singing when I just can't take the stress anymore. You are always there with opinions...even when I don't want your opinions! That's what big sisters are for.

I can't believe you are approaching 40 (I know, I know you're not there yet!) and we are approaching 30. Where the heck did the time go? I am so looking forward to the next 40 years and all the fun memories we are going to make!

I love you lots, thanks for being the best older sister ever! Here we are at an Angel game....shocking! Love, Suzanne