3,2,1
3- A job that helps pay the bills; Restored health and mobility to get and keep my fitness on track; Supportive people in my life to help me find comfort and clarity.
2- I'm really good at putting outfits together. I don't get to use this power as often, but it came in handy the other day for DD17 attending her first quince. I'm also really good at cooking and understanding how to boost and balance flavors, get certain consistencies, and being mindful of textures/mouthfeel.
1- I'm looking forward to DD19 bringing her friends home for spring break. Originally, they wanted to bring me on a road trip across the country with them but instead, they're coming to me...and as much as I loathe the beach, they convinced me to get a new 2-piece and may drag me along for a beach day.
California/Supermarket
Work- When it comes to jobs, they say it's best to be busy...because busy justifies keeping you around. On my team, we do a branch of compliance work for the various US states and territories. So, they're all divvied up among our 5-person group. We all have big, small, medium, easy, not so easy, and all-out headache states and territories. My biggie is California. So, I guess you'd say that CA helps keep me employed...even though it routinely makes me want to rip out my hair!
Varied environment/Terrain- I love how varied CA is in terms of what you get for terrain and nature. Southern coastal is so different than northern. You have mountains, some of which sustains skiing, and even the ski areas feel so different. You have extreme dessert situations, and all of those feel different. From Joshua Tree to Death Valley, it's such a different experience. SoCal and NorCal are like different worlds. Places like Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite, and MANY others are all in the mix and so varied. It's just pretty amazing when you drive around and always feel like you're someplace different.
The Energy- This really is more about the LA area, but I love the energy of California. It's one of a handful of places I've been where it's just got a buzz about it...like a get up and go that makes you want to get out and do more.
Honorable mention...which leads me into today's topic- We honeymooned in CA, which has a bunch of fun little memories and stories.
Making the Best of Things
After we got engaged, I had visions of the perfect big wedding at a spectacular venue. Unfortunately, things kept getting in the way...from a bridezilla in our world sabotaging our date after promising she was looking for something months later to the venue I really wanted (historic beachfront hotel with view of the Gulf of Mexico) waiting weeks to get back to me even though they had space and I had the deposit. We even booked a different venue (beautiful sky top ballroom looking out on the city) but I just could not pull the details together in a way to make it feel right. The stress got the better of me and for the sake of my sanity, we ate the deposit...canceled...and came up with a plan B where we made the best of it. In the end, I did not get the big glorious wedding I had in mind, but I think we got more out of it by shifting gears and making the best of things.
1. We got married in Vegas and had a small reception there for everyone that opted to travel. We also had a second reception in NJ and a third reception in TX. Yes...we had THREE wedding receptions. By making the best of it, we ended up having nearly a month's worth of celebrations and ended up being able to celebrate with over 90% of our guests. Had we stuck with just TX, at least 50% of our guest list would not have been able to travel. Seriously, I'm not sure I would have had grandparents or most aunts and uncles if I got married in TX.
2. I had visions of a massive wedding cake with all kinds of ornate details. It was this gorgeous Moroccan theme that I had in mind with lots of colors, gold, all kinds of ornate patterning details, etc. I found the perfect bakery to make this confectionary masterpiece but I quickly learned that my confectionary dreams were WAY out of the budget. I could have purchased a new car for what I was quoted on that cake. Even a smaller version of the cake could have gotten me a used car. We had cakes at each of our three receptions. The hotel provided a single tier cake that had some of the details and colors that I wanted for that massive cake. My parents had Costco make two large sheet cakes (chocolate and vanilla) for the NJ reception. I then used this as an opportunity to make my own cake for our TX reception. I cannot find any pictures of this cake that I made, but it's really where I learned a TON about making cakes and working with fondant. It was not the cake I envisioned but from an engineering standpoint, I managed to bake and assemble a SIX TIER stacked cake that stood strong without collapsing into itself or leaning. I learned that it's nearly impossible to self dye mass amounts of fondant black, so everything had this grayish lavender look, but that's OK. It really softened the look. I also didn't know how to use it neatly at that point, but I figured out how to drape with it. So, it was six tiers of nicely draped fondant. Sure, it looked like a volcano from some angles, but it's amazing that I pulled this off on my own for a first cake.
3. Gifting experiences - One of my pet peeves are party favors and helpers gifts that wind up in the trash or collecting dust. It's all of these little things you're supposed to do for etiquette's sake but when you consider the trash factor, it's such a waste of money. By getting married in Vegas, we were able to gift our closest with an unforgettable experience instead of something that would just wind up in the trash or the back of a cabinet. We only had about 12 people join us in Vegas and while we had a number of really cool Vegas moments that I would not have had if I'd gotten married in Houston (like walking through the casinos and lobbies of some of these grand hotels in a huge wedding gown). So, I decided to pay or gratitude to them by getting us all tickets to something/someone that's synonymous with Vegas. Yes, we took everyone to see Wayne Newton. It was the night before the wedding, right after the rehearsal dinner, and we all sat in various areas along the stage. I have all kinds of pictures of Wayne at our table, talking to us, singing to us, etc. I am close enough in many cases to see the details of his jewelry and diamond watch. In any event, friends and family still talk about it to this day.
That concludes my Monday morning novel!!!
friends 
but thankfully I can make coffee I could cook we had coolers to keep our food frozen outside and we could just put on all of our clothes and our winter coats and our mittens in the 400 blankets I keep because I have a blanket issue and make the best of it - no TV so we can play games looks like camping in the house for five days no phones although I did have a landline at the time but no Internet not to bothered me but the two teenagers suffered
