2011 A Year in Review April

April was a great a month with two notable events.

On April 4th Oscar and I celebrated 27 years of marriage, still awed that two young & ignorant teenagers made it work this long and this well. Oscar is an amazing man, it has been an honor to love him, parent with him and now grandparent together even during the seasons when marriage & parenting weren't all that much fun.   This photo was taken the day before our anniversary, while we attended the other notable event in this month.

The 4th Annual Firemen's Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser,I chaired this event for the Redondo Beach Woman's Club.  I worked with a committee of on-fire women and we put the "fun" back in fundraiser... over $5,000 was raised for the firemen to use on equipment not supplied by the city budget. This really should have had it's own post, there are so many women that could & should be recognized for their contribution. 


I will mention that for the first time ever... every single one of my children was busy with their own work and/or lives, making them unavailable to be guilt-ed into working as slave labor... I mean encouraged to help work... this event with me. Elise Makowsky (my soon to be daughter-in-law, but that's a post for October) came to the rescue and spent all day with me, both the 3rd & 4th, running around and helping put on this fabulous evening!

Since this is a "review post", I'll have to hit the highlights and post a few photos of the evening......

 Meet Vicki, she is our District President, a member of the Woman's Club Redondo Beach and an excellent kitchen organizer!

 The food line.... We had 27 volunteers from Marine Corps JROTC @ Redondo Union High School, Vera at her post, serving salad, and the firemen themselves serving up a very yummy plate of spaghetti.

This lady is a Donation Collector Extraordinaire, Sheila brought in many of the items used in the Silent Auction... our biggest portion of the funds raised that evening. 

 Winter even brought guests to the event... Conrad and her little Bestie, Eva!

This is Colleen, my client who has become a friend... Conrad & Eva belong to her. Throughout most of 2011, Winter, Eva & Conrad had many play-dates together.

I will give a full post to this years fundraiser on April 14th, 2012. Yes, that was a shameless plug to attend this year's dinner, come join the fun with us! 

Again with the disclaimer... I'm confident I missed mention of some one or some place that should have made it into the annual write up... Sorry it was you!

2011 A Year in Review February & March

February and March were busy work months for me. I received a referral to clients looking for a home in Palos Verdes... little did I know at the time, Colleen and I would become such great friends!

I also hosted a baby shower for a good pal, Suzan, it's was baby #2 and another girl!

Suzan's mom from Sweden and I raced to the hospital early that morning after dropping big sister off at daycare. 

One of my besties, Kristen Ewers & daughter Shea came to visit for a long weekend of Beach & Disney. Winter joined in the fun so Shea would have a bit of a playmate.

March was a quiet month, filled with the normal stuff that happens in life. I'm fairly confident I've missed something important this month, so if you are the missed..... I apologize in advance!

2011 A Year in Review January

Instead of doing Christmas cards, I've decided to do a few blog posts. Much of this stuff ended up on FaceBook. I'm not entirely comfortable with the social internet world because it's mixing my professional and personal lives, which in my book is a big no-no. So on with the reminiscing!

Winter Elizabeth and I ended 2010 with a visit to Disneyland just the two of us. It was fun we ate, watched people & parades and got matching hats.

Christmas was spent at Justin and Suzanne's place. Becca & Joe had to stay in Sacramento and celebrated with Joe's family, so we skyped to open gifts together.

I've gone back to see what was happening in my world and January looked like a quiet time. Becca & Joe were able to come down for her 25th birthday and the whole crew, minus Oscar, had a great time at Disneyland!

So glad my kids still think Disney is a cool place to celebrate their birthday!