Category: Friday Favorites

  • Friday Favorites – Mid-October Edition

    October is such a beast! I can’t believe we’re only half way through! It already feels like so much has happened. But, we’ve got 14 more days to go, which will include decorating our “haunted barn” for our Girl Scout Hal”low”een event on October 26 – and getting all the other food and crafts organized for the night, a cabin camping trip for three days and two nights with the same troop the three days before that Halloween event (scheduling is not easy with this crew), and Halloween celebrations on the 31st! But, let’s focus on this past week for now. I’m joining Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything once again!

    #1 – Home Cooked Meals

    I don’t cook at home a whole lot. I would like to cook more, but often just feel overwhelmed. But, last weekend, I was inspired in the morning on Sunday, so I made a potato and egg casserole:

    It was very easy – I used Trader Joes Spicy Spuds and then mixed put pre-cooked bacon in eggs and dumped that in the center of the potatoes and baked it. It was fantastic. Definitely will cook it again.

    Then, I was inspired. to make lunch too! I made Stupid Easy Oven Nachos a la Lazy Genius:

    They were very tasty! I always forget to take photos until we’ve started to eat the food, so they’re always half eaten (or more). I guess that shows they get eaten.

    #2 – Work Fun

    Last weekend was our Wildcat Weekend for parents and students interested in attending in the future. I took my daughter for the second year and we talked to some of the faculty and students in majors she is interested in studying. She does not want to stay in town for four-year college (she will likely go to Community College next year to finish up her GE), but they were nice enough to talk to her about some things to consider, etc. It was fun seeing her interact with faculty and really know what she is interested in studying. But, things may change and that is quite okay! I also gave a presentation to transfer students and parents and we visited some of my favorite places on campus. We also got a new art installation on campus that was made from steel beams from a covered bridge that burned in the 2018 Camp Fire. So many cool things on campus!

    #3 – High School Memories

    My High School class is having our 40th Reunion this weekend. I could not travel for another weekend this month, so I didn’t go. But, people have been posting some photos. It was a little entertaining to see myself back in 1985 (Fall of Senior year).

    #4 – Strange and beautiful things around town

    I had an evening to myself since my husband was traveling for work and my daughter was babysitting, so I ate dinner at Chipotle and went grocery shopping at Trader Joes. Someone made an incredible piece of art out of the aluminum foil lid at Chipotle. Then, someone had a great little Halloween guest in their car!

    #5 – Charcuterie, Sparkle and Trivia

    On Thursday, a couple of friends and I went to a new place in town for Trivia. They had a Bruschetta Charcuterie and Sparkling Wine for two and I ordered it for myself. Lol. I did share a bit of it, but it was so good, I ate most of it. My friend had one glass of the wine and I had the rest and we agreed it was great. And we got second place at trivia and won a $25 gift card for the place! So, we’ll be back on Thursday!

    And that’s it for this week! It was a good one, but I’m feeling like I’m a little behind in things. I’m a little anxious about our trip and our Halloween event. I have quite a bit of work to do at work before the end of the month.

    On another note – I hired a house cleaner! One of my former students cleans houses during the Summer and was looking for jobs up here and I’ve been wanting a house cleaner for a while, but our pets always seemed a little bit of a deterrent to hiring a stranger. But, this student pet sat for us in June, so she knows the pets and our house and was willing to clean it! She came for the first time on Wednesday and oh. my. gosh. My world has shifted. Seriously. It was SO clean. And it smelled so good. And it just made me feel so much better. And I didn’t spend today cleaning! All amazing things.

    In addition, we had our trees trimmed in our backyard and that also looks much better now! I am looking forward to this week because the temps are going down (70s, but 20 degrees cooler than this week) and I will be able to enjoy the backyard!

    How about you? What was your favorite from this past week? What are you looking forward to this next week?

  • Friday Favorites – Getting Rocktobered Edition

    I missed last week and today is Sunday, but thought I would join A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals for Friday Favorites, even if late. The end of September and beginning of October have really felt like drinking from a firehose. I’ve done a lot of things. A lot of things have happened around me. Some have been really fun. Some have been a lot of work. Some have been sad. Some have just been hard. And the rest of October has a lot going on by plan and I’m sure some other things will come up and it will continue to be a lot. But, we’re looking for favorites and grace and good things. I’ll go back the two weeks for my favorites and get caught up!

    #1 – All things Fall

    The weather is even starting to cooperate! It is only 74 at the high today. But, it will be back up to 90 this week, but mostly in the 80s. I can deal with that. The recent 100 degree temps were a little much for Fall.

    #2 – Fun with friends

    That blurry photo is ridiculous but we were playing trivia at a local place with friends. The Seltzer is not quite a Spritzer, but as close as I got these past two weeks. It was tasty – I had never had one. We were at a friend’s house for a small reunion of Speech and Debate team members from the past before our Hall of Fame that we celebrate every three years. I was inducted as a Director (a role I played for about 15 years on campus) and it was lovely. Friends who couldn’t make it sent me flowers and that is number 3!

    #3 Thoughtful Acts from Friends that include Flowers!

    #4 – Teaching and Service

    This past couple of weeks I’ve done a lot of teaching and some service. Our Girl Scout center had a clean-up day where all the troops come in and do some maintenance work – my daughter recruited for her day camp and I helped with some errands and rock moving.

    For teaching, we did a fun “battery” activity in my internship class and we’re all signed up and ready to go for Informative Speeches in my Public Speaking class. We also finished up our Wikipedia unit in Argumentation and took the first exam. I need to grade those on Monday and see how they did and we’ll move on to AI and Debate on Tuesday!

    #5 Puzzles!

    I finally finished my Summer puzzle and now I’m ready to start The Dogs of Halloween!

    Well, that is about it for the these weeks. So much has been happening at work that I can’t seem to keep my head above water. I’m really struggling to get it all done and that is really just October. I know that. But, it doesn’t make it any less painful. This week I’ve got a Girl Scout meeting on Monday to finish planning our Halloween Party we host for younger girls and our weekend trip that happens in two weeks (which reminds me that I still need to do paperwork and a training for Girl Scouts), a fun night called Science at the Pub on Wednesday where grad students and professors come to a local bar and talk about their research, my daughter has their big intercity rivalry game on Friday – called the Almond Bowl (and say the Almond like Salmon if you want to be a local), then there are some fun events over the weekend here in town. The next week is all about Halloween Party and a trip prep with Girl Scouts. In addition, I have a TON of work to do – emails to deal with, grading to do, planning the rest of the semester, making more progress on our 2-unit graduation class we’re trying to get to proposal stage, writing my year-end assessment report for last year in FYE, and so. much. more.

    I will do what I can do! Wish me luck!

    How is your October looking? Are you getting Rocktobered? Are you LockedIntober? Are you in PJs and Sockstober? Let me know!

  • Friday Favorites – Last of September

    How does this happen? I swear it was just yesterday I was typing “first of the –ber months”! Sigh…But, I’m back and joining in with Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything once again for Friday Favorites. I love doing this on the hard weeks because it reminds me of all the little things that are worth remembering, but easily forgotten when things are tough.

    This past week has been another tough one and I don’t have many photos (and definitely not many good ones – I need to work on using my new camera). I can also always tell a rough week by what my house ends up looking like at the end of the week, and it is a doozy this weekend. But, I’m happy to have a quiet weekend – just a Girl Scout Experience Day for a couple of hours today and that is it. If things go well today with putting the house back together and getting some grading done, we may drive up to Lassen National Park tomorrow and spend some time in nature as well. We’ll see. We already cancelled a friend BBQ tonight because it just felt like a little too much. BUT, this is supposed to be about last week’s favorites – so let’s go!

    #1 – Halloween Time!

    I love Halloween! I sometimes will wait until October 1 to decorate, but this year, I decided to start early! So, I brought out SOME of the decorations and Halloween goodies:

    My Hocus Pocus cup and my solar powered eyeballs and the cute Boo sign all made it out in the first haul!

    #2 – It is officially Fall!

    I wish the weather was a little cooler. It’s still been in the 80s and 90s here, which doesn’t feel very fall like. But, I got a new cup to remind me what season we’re in:

    And I am currently watching a YouTube video about slowing down and matching the natural rhythm of the seasons and I want to thank Jenni’s Seasons for the reminder that maybe my recalibration for the last 90 days may be a little more than I want to bite off. So, don’t look for Part Two of that little delusion! 🙂 And she mentioned Kendra Adachi and it just so happens that I had pulled “The Lazy Genius Way” book off my shelf a couple of weeks ago to reread, but had not started yet. So, yes! I do listen to Lazy Genius, but I often don’t REALLY listen! Thanks for the reminder.

    #3 Homecoming!

    I am not a football parent, so I don’t go to games. But, this past Friday was homecoming and my Senior was willing to share her favorite photos with me. Here are a few – the theme was White Out.

    #4 Puzzle, Soup and a cute outfit

    Still working on that same puzzle from last week. The cats make it difficult sometimes as they really seem to enjoy the puzzle board as a cat bed.

    But, I’ve almost finished it, so it is sure to be on next week’s Friday Favorites as my first completed puzzle of the season!

    We also had one day in the low 70s and I busted out a semi-Fall outfit with some leggings and a new-to-me shirt AND some Chicken Tortilla Soup!

    Ignore my daughter’s messy bedroom – the lighting is better in there. 🙂

    #5 Apple Pie A La Mode Ice Cream and Affogato

    My daughter and I found this ice cream at Trader Joes and it was super tasty! But, even better, I turned it into some Affogato and that was REALLY good!

    So, even though it was a bit of a tough week at work and my home is a bit worse for wear, there are still things to appreciate!

    How about you? What do you have to appreciate this past week?

  • Friday Favorites – Tough Week

    Joining Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything again for Friday Favorites this week. I’ll be honest. This was a tough week for a number of reasons. And I didn’t even work a full week. I worked from home yesterday and took today off other than one online speech session. But, man, it felt like it lasted forever! But, I’m going to focus on my favorites and moving on to better things!

    #1 – Bumper Stickers

    I saw a couple of bumpter stickers that I could really appreciate this week! The first one is more for my daughter, who hates parking. The second is one that everyone should have on their car and how we should all live our lives!

    I don’t like how I’m parked either.
    What would Dolly do?

    #2 Girl Scout Kapers!

    We had our bi-weekly Girl Scout meeting on Monday and our GS Center has put up a Kaper chart on the wall. If you aren’t familiar with Kapers, they are basically chores assigned to girls when you’re camping or doing an event or having a meeting! It was amazing how putting that little chart on the wall got all my girls doing their clean up duties without me asking! Here’s my daughter vacuuming:

    #3 Newly framed art work

    On a trip last year to Lassen National Park, which is pretty close to our home, we saw that they were selling limited prints done by our local artist, Jake Early. I have loved Jake Early pieces for years but never had a realistic opportunity to buy one at a price I could afford. So, when we saw they were selling these prints for only $125 – they started out selling for $500 – I knew I had to get it. It has since been sitting, waiting for a frame. Well, my husband surprised me by taking it in and getting it framed and I love it:

    We got it hung on our wall, but I don’t have a photo of it up there yet – this was when I picked it up at the framing store.

    #4 Getting Cozy for the Ber Months

    I did a couple of things this week in honor of the Ber months and I hope to add more! I got a cute puzzle at Barnes and Noble (and even got it on sale). I’m about half way through.

    I also got a new puzzle board to work on so my cats can’t knock all the pieces all over the place! So far, it has been brilliant! The cats have definitely had their time on the puzzle, but it has stayed in one piece just fine.

    I also took Shay’s lead and got myself a candle warming lamp recently and I am loving it!

    I got my daughter one as well and our house smells good all the time now!

    So, those were my favorites this week! Although this wasn’t a great week, I made it through and I’m ready to rally for a better week next week!

    How about you? Was your week all favorites, all foes or a mixture of both?

  • Friday Favorites – Summall

    Welcome to my blog! I’m joining Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything for Friday Favorites again this week! I’ve decided to call this time of year Summall because it feels like Summer most of the time, but Pumpkin Spice Lattes are out, all the stores have Halloween stuff, and the weather has gone from 102 degrees to 67 and raining and back to 97 degrees this week. Guess I’ll just embrace it!

    #1 Fall Living Room Redesign

    I think I had a photo of a reading corner on here a couple of weeks ago, but last weekend, I got the bug to do some redesign. We have a huge sectional that can’t really be moved in our living room, so I am relatively restricted in doing any furniture movement, but I decided to take the reading corner to a new level and bring out some fall decor. First, I reorganized two bookcases into one by color and I LOVE it. I’ve been doing a lot of BookTok YouTube videos lately and they all have these gorgeous color-coded bookcases! So, I did it.

    I think it really upped by cozy book reading corner game!

    #2 Organizing Dining Room Hutch

    While I was moving stuff around, I organized our dining room hutch for Fall – school and planner supplies on top, cookbooks and trivets on second shelf and my Fall dishes on the bottom. I added a pumpkin on top as well.

    #3 Summall Salads

    I ate a lot of salads this week. My husband has been traveling and my high school senior is gone more than she is home, so I’m doing a lot of meals on my own. Early in the week I had a TJ’s Sweet Chili Mango with TJ’s Grilled Chili Lime Chicken Breast. It was delish.

    I also had a TJ’s Mediterranean Style Salad Kit with some Foster Farms grilled chicken strips. Also good! And yesterday, I had TJ’s pre-made Caesar Salad with Foster Farms grilled chicken strips on top. All of these salads have a touch of Summer, but also can carry through to Fall, so I’m calling them Summall Salads!

    #4 Kayaking on the River with Friends

    The best this past week was definitely spending some time on the Sacramento River with friends. My daughter took our paddle board and I borrowed a friend’s kayak and we all took off down the river. It was perfect weather, great company and beautiful scenery!

    #5 Seasonal Decorating

    I pulled out a few of the non-Halloween decorations I have for the house. I also bought some seasonal signs from a Facebook Marketplace that I’m looking forward to using all year round!

    Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, so I’m looking forward to putting those decorations up, but will probably wait until the last week of September!

    For now, we have some pumpkins up around the house and I got this cute garland from TJ’s!

    How are things in your part of the world? Are you still in Summer, fully into Fall or are you also in Summall?

  • Friday Favorites – “Ber” Months Begin

    Well, I’m a little late for this Friday Favorites since it is actually Sunday morning, but I wanted to make sure to join A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals, even if a little late. This past week was Week Two of the full Fall semester and it was a bit exhausting. I am really happy we have a three day weekend because I have some grading and prep to get caught up and I definitely needed a bit of a break to make my house not look like a dumping ground! Without further ado, last week’s favorites:

    #1 Dinner and Spritzers with friends

    We actually had two dinners with friends last week. My husband got a new gas grill (need to include that in one of these posts – it is quite the machine), so we had dinners with friends twice this week. I made spritzers for the first one: Strawberry Lemonade Spindrift (which is quite gross on its own in my opinion), rosé wine (I had a local wine from last Christmas preview in town), and sliced strawberries. It was quite tasty! And so was the BBQed meat! I didn’t get any other photos, unfortunately, because the second dinner was a Tomahawk Ribeye, which is always good for photos!

    #2 A new month, fall weather, and a new wallpaper

    From Flourish Planner

    We actually brought in September with a little rain, cloudy skies and cool air. But, we are already back up to mid-80s this weekend and will be 90s in the coming week. Sigh… I was so hopeful for a clean break from Summer weather, but I should know better. I do have this lovely phone wallpaper to take me to cooler places!

    #3 Bingo for a cause with friends

    Every month a local “watering hole” hosts an all-ages Bingo night with all proceeds from bingo cards going to a local charity. This month the recipient was 530 Food Rescue and we had a big group playing. We even had some teens joining:

    No winner this time. We did have one last month, but this month was much more crowded, so it was harder to win. It was still a fun time hanging out and experiencing all the anticipation!

    #4 Local Ice Cream

    We are lucky to have a couple of great ice cream places in town, but only one made the top four national ice cream shop with Good Morning America! That was back in 2018, but they are just as good today.

    Yum!

    #5 Dragonflies

    We have had an unusually large population of these beauties around the yard this year and I love them all. An extremely large one had landed on our bedroom screen on Friday and then flew over to our nearby flowers and I had to get a photo!

    September is starting off well. I’m feeling like this school year is going to be a good one. My daughter had her first football game on Friday night (that’s for next week’s Friday Favorites) and had a great time! My house is coming together a bit this weekend and we’ll be off to a good start for the first full week of September!

    How about you? What’s been your favorites this past week?

  • Friday Favorites – End of August Edition

    Joining A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals again this week for Friday Favorites! This week was my big back-to-work week. I eased into it the week before with pre-semester training at my University with our student staff and classes at the Community College where I teach starting. But this week it was all the things – classes at the Community College, classes at the University, and my Director’s job at FYE in full force. Work has gone well, but my house was worse for wear, and we didn’t eat much dinner at home this week. Something had to give, though, so cooking was that thing. Overall, I would call this week a win for multiple reasons! This is a long one!

    #1 Concert with friends!

    We don’t go to many concerts, but we have a favorite local duo – The Kelly Twins, made up of two brothers who play piano (well, one of them plays a whole lot of other instruments during the show as well). Their whole show is by request, and everyone sings along loudly, and it is an absolute joy! If you ever get a chance to see them, do it! You will NOT regret it!

    So much fun! I forgot to take a photo of my drink, but it was very good. Not a spritzer, but a cocktail. We were at Argus Bar, on the patio, famous for its unique cocktail menu items. I had a Dirty Gurl. I almost didn’t order it because ordering that at a bar as a 58 year old woman is slightly humiliating – but it sounded worth it. And it was. I had two. Here is their full menu of drinks: https://www.argusvenue.com/menu and another shot of the concert:

    #2 Shopping Local

    On Sunday after the concert, I had my 17-year-old drive me downtown to get my car because we rode home with friends since we had drinks. Better safe than sorry. Since we were downtown, we did some eating and shopping! We had breakfast at one of our favorite places, Upper Crust Bakery. I was back there again on Wednesday to have breakfast with a colleague. Its that good!

    We then went to our local bookstore next door, simply named The Bookstore. It has both new and used books and I ended up with one I had seen on CBS Sunday Morning earlier in the day:

    We then walked down the block to Little Red Hen’s Home store. Little Red Hen is an incredible local org that provides employment and programs for adults and children with developmental disabilities, neurodivergence, and more. They have multiple stores, and they always have unique items. The people working there are kind, considerate, and enthusiastic, and you feel good about every purchase! I bought napkins I could not resist (and seemed made for me):

    and a new bottle of olive oil suggested by the employee!

    And when I was checking out, they asked if it was a gift, and I jokingly said, “a gift for myself.” They put it in the bag and then gave me some paper to make it a gift! ❤️

    #3 Sunsets with my 17-year-old

    I am trying to savor the time with my 17-year-old senior this year, so later that Sunday we drove out to a field by our house to watch the sunset because the colors looked pretty, but we can’t see much of the sunset from our house. We also saw the moon rising.

    #4 Girl Scouts – Senior Year

    We made it! My daughter started Girl Scouts as a Daisy in Kindergarten.

    And she’ll finish out this year as a Senior! We had our first meeting of the year on Monday night and did Court of Awards (handed out badges and patches from last year because I had to cancel that last meeting last year) and a Rededication candle ceremony courtesy of my co-leader:

    I am very proud to have this group of high school girls still showing up every couple of weeks to celebrate their sisterhood! My daughter is the only original troop member left from Kinder, but we have a few from 3rd and 4th grade and others from middle school. It is a really fun group of girls!

    #5 Fresh Flowers

    Especially hydrangeas! Thank you Trader Joe’s!

    #6 PSL Season!!!

    Last week I said that I had found Pumpkin Spice at Human Bean, but this week I was able to grab it at Starbucks! This has long been a signal that Fall weather, Halloween and all my favorite things are close at hand!

    #7 New Students for Fall!

    It is always so fun to see the new students in my classes for the Fall semester. Many of them are fresh out of high school, and their excitement, anxiety, and newness are palpable. I did my usual activity in my Argumentation and Advocacy class on day 2. They read about different ethical frameworks for decision-making, applied them to a political campaign scenario, then made posters around the room, editing each other’s work and hopefully gaining a better understanding of the complexity of decision-making, ethics, and advocacy. It was fun! And the posters were impressive!

    #8 A New Vacuum?!?

    That sounds ridiculous, but I own four pets, and between their shedding, my shedding, and my daughter’s shedding, our vacuum does a lot. I had my last vacuum for close to a decade, and it was time for a new one! The hose on the old one had a crack and I could envision the dust and hair flying out of it as fast as I was sucking it up! I did some research and got a rechargeable canister vac for hardwood floors, and I LOVE it! It is so light and not having a cord is great.

    #9 A New Houseplant

    #10 Redesigned reading corner!

    I got a new lamp for this corner of our living room. The last one stopped working in spring, but the light in Summer is fine without a lamp over there. But with Fall here and the time change coming soon, I wanted to get another lamp over there. I decided to change magazine baskets, move them over there, and will have my currently-reading and TBR books there as well. It will be a cozy reading corner once Fall weather and darker days are here and I am ready for it!

    WOW! What a great week! All the good that happens can easily get lost in the daily grind for me. But this really makes obvious how much goodness happens in a week!

    Hope you had a lot of favorites this week! Looking forward to reading everyone else’s.

  • Friday Favorites #2

    I’m actually here on a Friday, joining A Little Bit of Everything and Momfessionals again! Woohoo! This week was busy, busy, busy, but I’ve made it through and had some definite favorites. Let’s go.

    #1 An Actual Spritzer!

    My friend just returned from Croatia and discovered a favorite drink there. It is made with Lillet Rosé and Grapefruit juice. It wasn’t bubbly, but it was quite tasty and looked very pretty. And it was excellent for a hot, hot day. Fall is a misnomer for what’s going on around these parts right now.

    #2 Sticking with parts of a meal plan

    I was far from perfect this week. We got a take-and-bake pizza for one of the nights, and my daughter and I got In-N-Out when she had to babysit. But, I did do two meals from the list and a third edit of one of the meals. First, the cottage cheese bowl – it was delicious. I don’t know what I didn’t do one every morning. But, alas, I only had this beautiful masterpiece once this week.

    I went to Panera one day (I have a sip club for iced tea and work near one on Tuesday and Thursday mornings) and got avocado toast there and today we had a morning meeting with breakfast. The other day, I just didn’t have breakfast.

    I also made the Greek Chicken bowls this week. They were excellent and my family was able to build their own so they didn’t complain about the assorted things they don’t like, which are, of course, different from each other. I loaded it up with everything!

    #3 Napping Pets

    We had a lot of napping this week from the pets, as always. I was able to capture these cutie pies:

    #4 Sunsets

    We had some pretty sunsets this week. One of the evenings, my daughter and I jumped in the car and drove out by the orchards near us and I was able to capture the tail end of this lovely one:

    #5 Pumpkin Spice Season!

    I thought I was going to have to wait until Monday (August 25 – when Starbucks releases their Fall drink lineup) to get my first Fall fix, but we went to Human Bean this week and they had their Pumpkin Latte ready to go! They make theirs with pumpkin puree and no syrup and I get it half sweet and it is AH-mazing!

    And I was inspired to “spice” up my own coffee at home today in my travel mug. I use Trader Joe’s Cold Foam creamer and then I tossed some Pumpkin Pie Spice on top. Quite tasty!

    That’s it for me in this week’s favorites!

    I did teach my first couple of classes, and they went well. I’m trying to get my house cleaned and reset before the craziness of the full Fall semester kicks in. It has not been a favorite, but I’ve definitely made progress on laundry and decluttering some things. Much more to do this weekend!

    I am looking forward to seeing everyone else’s favorites!

  • Friday Favorites is a Favorite

    I am so excited to join Friday Favorites again hosted over at Momfessionals and A Little Bit of Everything!

    I am a returner, but under a different blog location (I used to blog under Speaking of Easy). If you’re curious why, you can read about it in my first blog post or just skip it! I’m okay either way. But I have really missed reading everyone’s Friday Favorites and doing my own each week. It truly is a bright spot! So, here goes:

    #1 – Library Visits

    Last weekend we used our final weekend of Summer to take a trip to Bakersfield to visit family. My MIL had been invited to a book talk and signing at their main library, and oh my…what a beautiful library it is! I had been to a smaller library in Bakersfield, but never this one. They were having a book sale (another favorite of mine) on the first floor, and the book talk and signing was on the second floor. Two floors!!! It was SO big!

    The book talk and book signing was in the Local History Room, which was appropriate, as the book was Images of America: Arvin, Lamont and Weedpatch and covered the history of the area from the area’s founding through the 1930s or so.

    My MIL and her friend who went with us both grew up in Arvin. In fact, her friend’s mother contributed a number of the photos used in the book! It was such a fun little local occasion with a lot of people who have obviously grown up and grown old in and around Bakersfield! At one point, my daughter turned to me and said, “It’s like being in an episode of Parks and Rec!” Lol…

    #2 Seeing History In Real Life

    After the book signing, we went to lunch. We had planned on visiting Luigi’s, which has been in business for over 100 years in it’s same location! They have delicious pasta and walls covered in black and white photos of old Bakersfield. BUT, it was PACKED when we got there. Sad.

    BUT, luckily right down the street is Wool Grower’s Basque Restaurant. It is a younger place, only 72 years old. 🙂 They had plenty of tables available. It was delicious as always. There is a large Basque population in Bakersfield and they have multiple Basque restaurants, but this one is definitely my favorite. They do a family style “set up” and that’s “all” I had (you can get a set up with a main course added on), but it included soup, bread, beans, salsa, tomato salad, more bread, and french fries, Yum! They also had some old photos of their own and this beautiful mural in the parking lot.

    After lunch we went on a drive out through Lamont, Weedpatch and Arvin to see what had been talked about in the book talk. We saw where my MIL and her friend went to elementary school and high school. We saw farms where they used to sneak cherries on the way home. We saw places from the book and newer places that have been built up in recent years. It was a great trip and I learned a ton about the area and its history! I’m glad that my neice (12) and my daughter (17) got to learn it all as well.

    #3 First Day of Senior Year!!!

    Well, this is a mixed favorite. I can’t believe my daughter is almost done with K-12, but I’m so happy to see her thriving as she goes into her Senior year. We got her a car in July, so she got to chalk a parking space and do her car windows for the first day. She has her leopard print backpack – not the exact same one, but pretty close to what she carried for her first day of Kindergarten.

    And here is that Kinder photo and her with the Kinder photo:

    She has days one and two under her belt now and seems really excited about the year!

    #4 Slow days before the Rush

    I do not start my Fall semester of teaching until Monday (I teach college at two local campuses). So, I had Thursday and Friday to prep, but mostly just take it slow before the rush of Fall semester starts. I spent a few hours in the hammock in our backyard enjoying an unusally cool day (in the mid-80s and breezy) with my book.

    It was glorious. But, now, I’m feeling behind in being ready to start on Monday. It was a trade off, but I’m glad I had some downtime. I have my first three to four weeks ready to go for my classes at the campus that begins on Monday, so I will be fine. And the slow day of reading and relaxing was much needed after two very busy weekends away and all the prep getting a Senior ready for her first day!