Weekend Recap

Sam has taken up soccer and joined a men's league that plays on Sunday afternoons about 10 minutes from our house.

He played a little bit last season (summer) with Ryan Quigley, but this season (fall) he made his own team and recruited two of Ryan's teammates to play with a bunch of the UCI surgical specialty residents.   

It's been interesting, because the surgeons are so back with commitment since they've got call, vacations and really busy schedules in their free time.  Finally, this week, they were able to get together a group of guys who have been at several of the games and are getting used to playing together.  Additionally, Bo brought two of his friends who are pretty good.  

Last week was the first goal of the season, and this week they scored 4 - 2 of which came from MY FUTURE HUBBY!  :-)  I am still super proud of Sammy if you can't tell.  Not only did he score twice, he made a huge save while he was playing goalie at the end of the first half.  It was a great day for him and I know he finally felt like he was getting his touch and endurance back.  

Luckily, next we the team has a bye coming up because we're going to be gone in NorCal this weekend.  The following weekend, they have a double header so I'm going to bring an ice chest of water bottles, gatorade and orange slices.  I haven't done that yet this season because I don't want to be TOO much of the team mom, but I do think they deserve a little pampering if they're going to play two games in one day.

In other news, the Niners looked fantastic against the Houston Texans and I cannot wait to be at Candlestick this Sunday night!

Succulents and Cactus

With all of Sam's free time, we're working on cultivating hobbies that we both enjoy.  

One of the things I suggested is gardening.

I love gardening!  

I wish we had a real backyard so I could really do some serious landscaping, and it turns out Sam really likes outdoor home improvement activities.  Win-win!  

I've had a couple of different plants since I moved to Southern California.  There were some short-lived  geraniums on the Newport Peninsula that fried in the all-day direct sunlight.  Then I had an orchid that lived for about 2 years but couldn't find the right amount of sunlight in our current apartment. 

So far, my biggest success has come from a rubber plant my brought down after we moved into our apartment.  It's managed to survive (barely) for 2 years despite numerous periods of neglect.  Which got me thinking, maybe we needed to rethink the kinds of plants we were trying to cultivate.  Perhaps we should move away from the florals in favor of succulents.

So Sam agreed to check out succulents with me this morning and we headed to Lowes to see what we could find.  When we arrived, Sam found some cactus plants that looked pretty neat next to the succulents.  He also found some really neat pots that fit in with the ones we already have as well as the patio furniture for housing potted plants at different heights.  Major win-win!

Interestingly enough, we bought one pre-potted compilation of low-moisture succulents and cacti but we bought loose plants to put into 3 additional pots.  It's the perfect mix of do it yourself meets prefabrication.  And they are actually pretty cool looking when you mix them together.

 So hopefully we'll have better luck with these bad boys than I have had with previous iterations of potted plants and patio gardening.  At the very least, hopefully Hunter won't be eating these plants since these plants have spikes and prickly needles. 

Calendaring

It's amazing how quickly my calendar fills up... It's not even May yet and my weekends are already booked through June.  I do not say that to brag, believe me.  I would welcome a weekend of NOTHING.  No traveling.  No socializing.  No hosting.

Sam loves to go big on his Golden Weekends despite my desire to veg on the couch and recoup from the craziness.  Oh well!  Until the time when Sam has more free time I will be living and dying by my calendar.  

TGIF!!!

I could not agree more with this meme.  OMG this has been a crappy week.  Full disclosure, it's *that* time of the month so I have been a bit of a hormonal mess.  Let's just say that I spent Tuesday afternoon bursting into tears several times in my office.  Yes, it was that bad.  Plus, Sam got sick and obviously we're all cranky when we don't feel good.  Last night, we had two comforters on our bed- one on my side and one on his.  Dear Lord, please let him be recover by the time I see him Monday!

Yes, I will be out of town this weekend at Miss Jackie's Bridal Shower.  I have tonight to pack, spend some quality time with Hunter Puppy, write in Jackie's card, fill out the recipe card (we're all donating new recipes to her and Joe's collection) and prep Hunter's dog-sitter with notes for her visits on Sunday.

Sam and I will split up our nights with him so that we don't have to have the dog-sitter stay overnight or leave Hunter at the vet.  I am on duty tonight and Sunday night, Sam will be home mid-afternoon on Saturday and rest at home that night before reporting for call again on Sunday morning. 

This weekend kicks off the 2013 Wedding Season Madness for me.  And believe me, this homebody is already feeling elevated blood pressure just looking at her calendar.  I underestimated how stressful it would be to concurrently plan a reunion and a bachelorette party long-distance.  Not that I would give either of them up, I am having fun and am really excited about all the festivities, but it's all the little details that creep up on me 

We're going to be up in Tahoe during shoulder season, so the restaurants are not as responsive as I would like them to be, i.e. (I waited 2 weeks to actually get firm plans set up with the limo company and the restaurant).  If you know me, you know that I like to try to be prompt and organized with lots of advance planning. 

Worse than flaky vendors, I have about three people I just want to punch in the face.  I realize that everyone is doing their best to be helpful; however, I wish that people would keep in mind that we're talking about big groups here and what is easiest may not be EXACTLY what you, the individual wants, but for the sake of the group (and my sanity) could you just go with the flow?  I am not going to friend 300 people on Facebook to make sure they get added to our reunion group- those folks who don't want to publicly associate their profiles with our high school can either a) get an emailed registration PDF from the folks they keep in touch with, or b) they can email me directly and I'm happy to hook them up.  And while I'm on the subject, if you join the group, please take the time to explore the information!  I can't tell you how irritating it is for me to explain the same 3 things over and over and over.  The location is listed, the registration fee is listed, and it clearly says MULTIPLE places that you cannot pay at the door.  Don't whine to me about that.  Just freakin' plan accordingly.

Can you tell my patience for morons is wearing thin ?  :-)  I should probably make this gem (at right) my anti-mantra for the next couple of months.  Actually, no joke, I should probably print it out (or order a few plaques somewhere online) and hang this up in my office at work and my office at home.  Sheesh.  I know I like things to be my way, but sometimes I honestly think my way is the best damn way to do it.

But seriously folks, I understand we all have our little preferences.  And I do want to accommodate them, if I didn't care I'd be WAY less stressed out!  Just keep in mind when you make some special request 2 weeks before the event that it may cause me to have a complete emotional breakdown, crying in my office at work. 

Bachelorette Party 101

Breaking News: I get to plan Jackie's bachelorette party!  I am so excited!

This is my first ever bachelorette party because I missed Molly's when she got married a few years ago. Jackie and I decided the best thing to do is to have the party in Tahoe so we can use the Santi family condo at Northstar to save everyone money.  Unfortunately, we are having it the weekend of April 20-21 and the resort will be shut down that weekend.  It looks like we may need to go all the way to Jason's for dinner Saturday night... but that's ok.  :-)

I've got the invitations ordered and I am waiting for the proof to approve printing.  Heidi is planning the Bridal Shower for 2 weeks ahead of the Bachelorette and I don't really want to step on her toes and send out my invites before she sends out hers... but I am asking for RSVPs back one month ahead of the Bachelorette so we can get the transportation, goodies, and refreshments figured out ahead of time.  That means I should probably send them out the first weekend of March so that people have between 2-3 weeks until the RSVP deadline.

It's going to be fun to be a bridesmaid again, even if I am a little nervous about the logistics being gone for the Shower, Bachelorette, and Wedding (kicking off my 2013 wedding season) every other weekend starting the first weekend in April.  I hope Sam is off at least one of the weekends I have bridesmaid stuff going on because otherwise Hunter is going to have to spend a lot of time with Dr. Kali and his amazing vet staff.  Not that I have a problem with that, but it does get a bit expensive!

Dan is coming to town!

Sam's cousin, Dan is coming to stay with us for two nights starting Sunday for a job interview here in Orange County.  Dan has been living on the East Coast with his wife, Rachel, who is a fellow blogger.  Hopefully he will get it so he and Rachel will move down here and be close to us.  (I definitely wish Rachel had been able to come along on this trip, it has been too long since we've seen her!)

Sam has been lucky enough to not have call this week, except for tonight and Sunday night, which is the worst possible timing for Dan's visit.  C'est la vie, non?  So with Sam out of the house, I am working on finishing some housework tonight and cleaning our kitchen, living room, and guest room.  Too bad there isn't another Giants game, I suppose I will have to settle on reading some Harry Potter before bed instead.  :-)

Here's hoping the Giants can pull off another shutout tomorrow when their in Detroit!