burger jones birthday

Can I just say that Burger Jones is delicious? Thanks. Burger Jones is delicious. We dined there the other night for my birthday and all left with clogged arteries, full stomachs and smiling faces.





This is mostly going to be a picture post. I'm just warning you.





Behold the deliciousness:



Yes, as a matter of fact, those are fries smothered in gravy. How good of you to ask. I was skeptical at first as well, but don't knock it until you try it!







I just love sparklers. They make me happy.
So does this guy:



And this place:



Try it sometime!

best buns in town

A few weeks ago, Dave and I had a Saturday morning date and went to this little place called Isles Bun Company in uptown. Whoa. That place is amazing. If you live in the area, run, don't walk, to this tiny little aroma filled, goodness serving, giant mixer using slice of heaven as soon as you can!
Thank you. Your life will forever be changed.



As you can see, weeks later, I'm still drooling over this place. It's that good.

in the club

Dave and I spent the weekend visiting our friends in LA. They are really our family, but sometimes I think of family more as friends. Like my sister, she's more of a best friend than a sister. It's supposed to be a good thing. It didn't really come out right.

Anyway, our time with Justin and Autumn is always amazing, and this time may have taken the cake because we were invited to join them at Disney's exclusive supper club called Club 33. Walt Disney crafted this club back in the 50's to entertain his friends and celebrities, and now it is used for basically the same thing. You have to be a member to dine there - or just have the right connections!



The cuisine was delicious, the fellowship charming and the atmosphere perfect.







Here is a whole group picture courtesy of our new friend Karissa.


(pictured here are our new friends Mallory, Jeff, Karissa and Paul. And Justin and Autumn of course. Oh, and us.)

We had an extremely knowledgeable waiter - Alistair - who relayed some of the history, took us on a little tour and answered all of our questions. It was pretty much the coolest thing ever. Seriously.

And the perfect night ended with a magical walk down main street at a near empty Disneyland.





(this picture also thanks to Karissa)

Ronal is the new Ronald

The McDonald's by our house is ridiculous. Particularly the sign they use to advertise new products and such. I'm not sure if they just don't have enough of those little plastic letters, or if they are not paying attention, or if they have employed a 5 year old to change the sign, but they are always missing letters, or are grammatically incorrect or a certain, important letter has fallen down. One thing is for sure, it always sends us into fits of laughter. Here are a few examples. I really wish I had pictures of these signs, but alas...I have none.

"Cool off with a iced mocha"

I don't know about you, but it drives me crazy when people don't use "an" in front of words that begin in a vowel. It just grates on my you know? And it just sounds wrong.

"Enjoy our new aspberry shakes"

This was one of those tragic moments when an important letter had fallen down. It was supposed to be "raspberry shakes"

"try a browni melt"

What's a browni melt?? I don't think I want to find out. Gross.

And our favorite so far...

"Meet Ronal this Saturday at 3"

Ronald was booked so they had settle for Ronal. Poor kids.

Dear MacDonald's in our neighborhood,
Thanks for keeping us constantly entertained. We have yet to try one of your advertised new items. Maybe if you started spelling them correctly....

Thanks Obama!

While Jessica decided to use her fun money for something very practical, mine was a little less.....

Meet my new rival



He currently holds a world record...1,050,200 points. I've decided I needed a tool that would help me TAKE HIM DOWN!



I thought I would need something that would make every nerd stuck in 1981 quake with envy...



It's going to be tough, and I'm going to see a lot of these...but it'll be worth it...



Behold...DONKEY KONG!

a plea for prayer

My little brother asked if I would post the story of his friend's little sister who is battling cancer from a brain tumor. She is 12 years old and needs prayer. Please read her story and join us in praying for Mara.

This is a letter from her mom:

Mara has finished her second round of Chemo. Although it isn't easy and she has lots of tears, she is getting through it. I am so incredibly proud of her.
She is a trooper. the background is.....
I took her to the doctor in August of 2008 for headaches, weight loss, & extreme thirst.
The nurse practitioner wanted to do an MRI that day when diabetes was ruled out.
The doctor who never laid eyes on her said no to the MRI. She said it presented like an eating disorder. I argued this point but they did not do the MRI b/c it was expensive and they wanted to rule out the ED.
Well .... they were wrong.
Moms! You all know your kids. don't take what they say blindly. I always knew Mara did not fit the diagnosis of eating disorder but she continued to lose weight and got sicker everyday.
once she was down 15lbs. we admitted her to the Eating disorder institute b/c she needed to be hospitalized. Her vitals were in bad shape. this was Dec of 08
After being treated terribly by them and losing 7 more lbs she finally got an infection from the feeding tube they placed and was sent to Children's hospital.
Still no answers.
I brought her home at 58lbs and did my very best along with her NEW pediatrician to get her out of danger and her weight high enough that test results would not look like malnutrition.
Her pediatrician wanted her to go to an endocrinologist because of a low cortisol test I had demanded at the ED Clinic.We went to the Mayo and inside of 10 minutes the doc diagnosed her with "Diabetes Insipidus" it is not the same as juvenile diabetes it has more to do with water and sodium levels. The confirmation of this diagnosis was an MRI.
FINALLY she gets the MRI and it is 1 year and 1 month later. Her doc called that night with the bad news.
It had been given an additional 13 months to grow.
Her diagnosis is :
Diabetes Insipidus & Pineal Germinoma (brain tumor).
The Germinoma caused the insipidus.
along with low levels of many hormones.
The prognosis is good on curing the cancer. The big question mark is how much of her hormone function will come back. and how much damage to the pituitary glad and hypothalimus.
My prayers for her is COMPLETE WHOLENESS. Lacking nothing!
As this tumor dies her other symptoms will go away.

Thank You for your prayers and God Bless You All!!
Sincerely,
Mara's mom
Kim

my husband the lumberjack

See? I only speak the truth.



And maybe it's just once a year with the other men folk during work weekend at the cabin, but it totally counts.



The men folk were mighty impressive this year in the sheer volume of trees cut down and split.



Thank you men folk. I just love saying men folk. It makes me feel like I live out on the prairie in a log cabin, cooking over a fire while wearing a bonnet.



This is my little cousin Jacob.



He was pretty much our own personal dog watcher/walker/entertainer. It was awesome.



Olive also received some TLC from Za.



She pretty much received constant attention the whole weekend. It definitely went to her head.

We went into town Saturday night for some delicious pizza at the Savoy and all our dreams came true when we saw this sign on the door:



Please take note of the name of the band. Thank you.



Unfortunately we left before we could partake in the sweet, sweet sounds that I'm sure would have come out of "trashville"

Another fabulous weekend was had by all



Including a nice quiet ride home

you know it's cold in your house when....

The butter you keep on the counter is almost as hard as the just-took-it-out-of-the-fridge butter.

Sad.

Have a good weekend everyone! We are off to the cabin.