Blogging when I feel led

Over the last couple of days I read Julie and Julia. A book about a lady living in New York who cooks her way through a Julia Child cookbook. She writes on her blog whenever she cooks and her readers sometimes comment on it. She doesn't write everyday and her readers still enjoy the blog. So I'm figuring that is how I am this summer. Once the month of August came I realized that I didn't want to write on the blog everyday. That is not part of the relaxing flip flop days of summer that I imagined. So for the rest of the summer, when I feel in the mood I'll blog, but if I don't have anything really blog-worthy to write about I'll save it for another day.

He's coming soon!

Yesterday, Beth and I threw Sandy a baby shower. Sandy's looked great and we all can't wait to meet the little guy!

Happiness is...

feeling better enough to go on a walk. It amazing how used to walks I've gotten. I hadn't gone on one since Monday morning. It was good to be able to feel better enough to go on a walk. "These legs are made for walking and that's just what they did."

Sick at home

I originally tittled this blog entry homesick, but that would require be being somewhere else besides my house so I changed the tittle to something appropriate.

So I realized I'd better post another entry before my fans wonder "Where did Kristina go? It's been a couple of days and no posting" J/K So I've been sick for the last several days. This is a mix of a cold/flu. If you get this loud hacking cough, run a low grade fever for 6 days and are very tired you got what I have. If you have this I don't have any suggestions for remedy, I guess just lay around the house and watch Tory and Dean and their family for four hours straight. I hope to be back to normal in a couple of days.

Rika and Van's Reception

Rika and Van celebrated their wedding union on Sunday evening. We had a lot of fun, got to dance and have a huge Chinese banquet meal. The bride and groom looked great and everyone had a good time!

Park

Today I spent the morning with Camala and the boys. We walked to the park in San Carlos and watched the boys play in the sand. They are getting so big, it's hard to believe that a year ago I was visiting them in the hospital.

Rika's wedding!

Rika's wedding took place on a very pretty beach. It sprinkled a bit during the actual ceramony. In fact I looked up and didn't see any rain clouds. It must have been a happy mist from above. The rain stopped quickly and the sun remained out. Rika and Van looked terrific and everyone enjoyed the great meal afterward.

Hats are a must

In Croatia I sunburned my lips. I don't mean just a little sunburn.. major sunburn, lips bleeding, can't even smile. I was afraid of the same thing happening while I was in Hawaii so I bought a really good chapstick. One thing I didn't think to purchase was a hat. Stefanie had an extra hat on Maui so for my time on the beach I was able to wear it.

Sunset in Hawaii

I got the opportunity to go to Hawaii to celebrate Rika and Van getting married. We spent a couple days swimming, relaxing and participating in wedding festivities.

We went to dinner and had to wait during the perfect time of the day.. sunset. We saw a turtle bobbing in the water, waves splashing against the rocks and boats floating in the water. It was beautiful!
At dinner we sat on the deck, ate a good meal and in the background heard a luau going on.

So You Think You Can Dance

I first saw So You Think You Can Dance a couple of summers ago and really enjoyed it. At the time it was just another Fox reality show. I didn't think it would be on another season, but really liked watching it. Fast forward 3 or 4 years and now I know a lot of people who watch it. Last season there quite a few dance numbers that I really enjoyed and still remember a year later. This year there wasn't one that stuck out as really moving until last night. I thought Ade and Melisa did a wonderful job portraying the theme of breast cancer.
Watch it for yourself...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKxoCxalyWw

Happy Birthday Sandy!

Since I was away this year to celebrate Sandy on her actualy birthday we celebrated when we both were back from vacations. We got to hang out, go out to lunch and hang out some more. Happy Birthday Sandy!!
(I love how the candles in the picture actually move)

Capitola

Regina and I have been making the trek to Santa Cruz once a summer for about the last decade. Sometimes we go to Santa Cruz, sometimes Capitola, sometimes we go later in the day, sometimes earlier, sometimes we go with others, sometimes we stop at Marianne's ice cream. This year since both of us didn't work on Monday we decided to skip the weekend crowds and go during the week. We went early enough to beat the afternoon traffic and get a nice parking space without driving around looking for one. Even though it was a bit cooler than we typically like it I think we were very smart about going during the week and early in the day. Hopefully next summer we'll get the same chance.

Street Fair

Yesterday after church Neilly and I sat to have lunch at the Menlo Park Street Faire. I realized that fair's really don't have healthy options for people. You know say a salad or something. I wasn't in the mood for a salad anyway so I went with a hot dog, fries and strawberry lemonade. Very good! We walked around the fair, saw mostly art and jewerly. A good summer afternoon!

Happy Birhday!

Yesterday we celebrated Davie and Georgie's(Camala and Dave's boys) 1st birthday. They got to eat their apple cake and looked like they enjoyed every minute of it! I can't believe how fast time flies.

New Book:The Girls from Ames

Yesterday I started a new book. It's a non-fiction book about 11 girls who grew up together in Iowa and now are in their 40s living around the country. They get together yearly and talk reguraly.

Walking

Yesterday I was able to go on two unplanned walks. In the morning with Beth and in the evening with Regina. It's always good just to call each other and just go. P.S. This walking image is from the web. It is not Regina, Beth or I.

Jazz in the Park

Every Wednesday there's a outdoor concert at Stafford Park in Redwood City. People have it down to a science. They bring their dinner (some BBQ, sandwiches, pizza), camping chairs and sit out on the lawn to hear the music. Last night we went down there, the Doherty's were in town and it was good to see them. A good evening with good weather.

Monday June 13th-London

My vacation was in Croatia, but I got a little bonus of stopping in London on the way home. I definately didn't get enough time there, but I know I'll make it back. I decided to ride the tube (underground subway) to the airport instead of taking the very very expensive taxi I did on the way to the hostel. I'm excited to come back and explore.

Sunday July 12th- London

After a cheese omlette I headed off to the airport with one of the girls I met on the trip towards London. I had to have a layover in Frankfurt, a much better option for a layover than Vienna. When I got to London I found out my bags were put on a later flight for some reason. All I really wanted to do was take a shower, but would have to wait until my bags got delivered to my hostel. After checking into my hostel I walked around Regent Park. There was a lot of families out, the weather was chilly and even sprinkled a bit, but it was a nice time.

Friday July 11th-Back in Split

This morning we all got off the boat at about 8:30, each of us looking for our hostels with plans to meet up in the afternoon. My lips were very badly chapped and bleeding so I was trying to stay out of the sun so they didn't get any worse. We met up to go out to a lookout point and then out to dinner. Split was a lot busier today than it was last week. The vacation season really in full swing. My hostel was a lot quieter than that first night. I would even go back.

Friday July 10th-Omis and rafting

Today we got off the boat pretty early to lay on the beach. I layed out on the grass in the shade. We then got our stuff together to go rafting. Many of us were nervous for the rafting, but it turned out to be not that big of a deal at all. I'd say a class 2 or something. We basically rolled down the river and came to a couple of very rocky bumps. It was a good long ride and didn't get back to Split until 6 or so. When we got to Split we changed and then went to a couple of places to hang out. It was weird that our time on the boat basically had ended.

Thursday July9th-Markaska

Today we had a much smoother ride to Markaska. After lunch we got off the boat to head for the beach. The captain of our boat said that it was the best beach in Croatia. When we got their we realized that the captain wasn't the only one with that opinion. It was wall to wall people and no sand. We layed in the shade for a while and walked through the markets.. looking for something to wear for our pirate party. Some of us went to a really slow restaurant and then went out to a cave place where again 2:00 seemed a lot like 10 or 11.

Wednesday July 8th-Miljet

Today was the first really rocky day.It looked like we could have been in a movie. I think at one point we were vertical. A couple of hours past though and we were good to go. When we got on land some of us rented bikes and biked through camp grounds. Halfway through our journey we stopped and swam in a warm salt water lake. Our ending point was a great view of the Adriatic Sea. Today reminded me of days camping, riding bikes on warm weather vacation. Another great day.

Tuesday-July7th-Dubrovinick

This may have been my favorite day out of the trip. We put our swimsuits under our clothes when we got off the boat and walked around the city. Boy was it warm. After we went to a couple of cliff lookouts the group split up. Dane, Kelly and I walked around the top of the city walls and were so hot sat and had icees. Then we jumped into the sea and went back to the boat to changed for the evening. We found a dinner place and then went out to a couple of clubs. We got back to the boat pretty late, but people on our boat got back even later and woke everyone up. Oh well, still my favorite day.

Monday-July 6th-Korchula

This was the prettiest island yet. The island was set up like a fishbone. Very cute! It reminded me a bit of Mkynonos, Greece with the cobble streets. Rumor has it that Marco Polo was born here so there was Marco Polo stuff all around. After we went to bed around 3 or 4 in the morning there was a brawl on one of the other boats (everyone docks very close to one another) and there was 15 Croatian men fighting on our boat. The Croatian police were called and glass bottles were shattered into our rooms because we all slept with the windows open.The power was cut off from all our boats. A couple of us earlier that night were talking about pirates and stuff like that so I thought it was pirates or someone attacking us. Everything was shouted it Croatian so I have no idea what they were fighting about. We all survived and had good stories to tell the next morning.

Sunday July 5th -Hvar

Today we woke up, ate breaksfast and then got our simsuits on to take a dip. We had to stay on the boat the majority of the day because Hvar is a very popular place and we couldn't dock until 4:30 or so. When we got off the island you could tell that rich people came here. Hvar is known as the party island and party it was. We showered and went out to dinner and drinks after. Going to bed at 2:00 seemed more like 11:00 because there was so many people around. This is the one place I feel we didn't get enough time at. I would love to go back.

Saturday July 4th-Milna

I didn't sleep a wink last night and had severe jet-lag. I threw up a couple of times and was laying on the floor trying to recover because I had to get on the boat at 12:00. Fortunately the Michigan girls were with me and they helped me through it.
As soon as I got up and walking though I felt alot better. We met our crew and everybody and set out for Milna. The ship resembled a small pirate's ship and we got to get out and swim in the Adriantic Sea in the afternoon. This made me feel A LOT better. We got off the boat in the afternoon and looked around. There wasn't a lot to see, we showered and ate dinner and went to bed pretty early.

Friday July 3rd-Split

Today most of my day was spent in the airports. I got to Split around 5:30 to find a warm rainstorm. I got to my hostel, which looked more like a side ally and then set off to explore the town some. The town was situated into city walls and was very cute. I met 3 girls in the hostel from Michigan that were going to be on my ship and then tried to go to sleep early because I was very tired.

Thursday July 2nd

Planes, Planes Planes...
On the first day of my journey it took 24 hours of travel to get to Split my final destination. I first flew to Washington D.C, then to Vienna, Austria where they don't have a very good airport and finally to Split, Croatia. For the most part the flights were non-eventful. I got to watch I Love You Man, a great movie, get a little sleep and basically sat for the duration of my three flights.

Plutos Lunch

There was a time where I didn't like Plutos very much. People would say, "Let's go out to dinner" and I would respond with "Sure just as long as it's anywhere, but Plutos or Amadillo Willys." The first time I went to Plutos many years ago I hadn't discovered that I like salad. Now I actually like cesar salad so I like Plutos restaurant. In fact I was the one to suggest it to Anel when we were planning on meeting for lunch. It was a good lunch and great to catch up with what we've been up to over the last month or so.

Tutoring

Since I am working towards my masters in reading I wanted to find someone to tutor and try new strategies with this summer. I am tutoring Justin, a boy that will be in my class next year. So far we have had two sessions and it's going good so far. When I used to tutor before I started teaching I didn't really know what to do with kids. Now I have plenty of ideas and feel that the family is getting their money worth it.

BBQ

Most of you reading this know that I don't like fire (or anything hot for that matter) On Christmas Eve when we have to light candles and sing "Silent Night" my hands start to sweat and when we cook pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving I have my sister reach in to cover the pie crust so they don't burn.

With this being said, I've never done the BBQ. I always like BBQ food, but was always afraid I'd catch on fire. Tonight I felt like having a BBQ hot dog for dinner so that required me to use the BBQ for the first time. We have a gas grill so I didn't have to worry about coals or anything crazy like that, but after getting tips on how to turn it on it was hot. After about 10 minutes my hot dog was good to go. I succeeded in this summer treat!

Celebrating Rika!

For Rika's bacholorette party we had an Indian theme. First we took a class of Bollywood Dancing. The class was a lot of fun and was quite a workout. After dancing we went to Amber India at Santana Row. It was a fun night.

First hot day

I love the warm days of summer. We've had a series of warm ones this week, but this weekend is hot. Before it got too hot,I started the day with a morning walk with Beth and Toby, went to run errands in my air-conditioned car and read some of my book. I'm not too hot, but I'm glad I'm not in a car sitting in the sun. Yikes 101 degrees!

Massage

I think everyone with a bad back and tense shoulders should get a professional massage every so often. I typically go for a massage twice a year or so. Once in the fall when the stress of school has hit me and once at the beginning of vacation to help me really get in the relaxation mode. I like LaBelle the best out of the typical places on the peninsula. They don't use oil and give you a nice smelly neck thing when you come in. I enjoyed my massage today and that my shoulders are much more relaxed.

Walking

This morning I went for a walk with my long time friend Jennie. It was a little windy at Sawyer Camp Trail, but we talked the whole way and weren't bothered by it. In a couple of months we'll add another person to our hang out time. Jennie is due with a baby girl in late September. Yeah!

Burlingame Ave.

Every year I borrow artifacts from a museum in Union Square for my multicultural study. I make a plan every year at the beginning of the summer to go up and return the bags when I'm finished with the school year. Today my mom and I decided to just drop off the things in San Francisco and drive to Burlingame Ave. Burlingame Ave. had this cute, preppy feel. It was a nice day and people were out and about. We went into a couple of shops and ate at the Crepevine. It made for a great summer day.

Lunch

Today when I came home from running errands I decided to have lunch in the backyard. For lunch I had a toasted chicken sandwhich with yogurt and bannanas on the side. After I ate I put up my feet and sat under the umbrella looking at the perfect blue sky, hearing the birds chirp, the gardeners next door and the themotor that read 86 degrees. Summer perfection!

Shopping

Many of you know I'm not a huge fan of shopping. I like to go into a store and find things. I do not like to put very much effort into hunting for the perfect outfit. My back gets tired, I get hungry and cranky if I've surpassed a certain amount of time.(About an hour) I was very successful picking out summer clothes at Ann Taylor Loft and REI this afternoon. I do have to say I give props to Renee and anyone else who can find bargains at Nordstorm Rack. I walked in and basically walked out. It was going to be too much work. After all I was already successful earlier.

Happy Father's Day!

So we had an algebra lesson today.
Horse races-horse races+mini golf=mini golf

Today we woke up to get ready to go to the horse races for Father's Day, but found out quickly that the races were on the fair circut and not in Emeryville. We decided to go to Malibu and play mini golf instead.
He will probably never sit down at the computer to read this but just wanted to say Happy Father's Day to the person who knows a lot of things, can fix anything and will drop almost anything to do something for anyone in our family. I love you Dad!

Raina and Mike's Anniversary Party!

We celebrated Raina and Mike's 10 year wedding anniversary on Saturday at Huddart Park. Even though it was a bit chilly fun was had by all.

Lunch

I'm really glad I get to stay at my school along with most of my co-workers next year. Today after we cleaned up our rooms we went to one of the teacher's house for lunch. It was good to hang out, enjoy some good company and good food before we go our seperate ways for the next two months.

Last Day of School!

Every year I end the school year by reading Oh the Places You Go by Dr. Seuss and this year was no exception. I'm excited vacation is beginning and I have time to relax over the summer.