Goodbye, Ant Jeny...

So, on Saturday night, my sister Amy organized a going away type party for me at Fazoli's. It was very lovely and I got to see everyone except my sister Amanda, who wasn't available to come. The "theme" had to do with Dora the Explorer and one of my cake's said "Jennie...Another Adventure". I was really glad that so many of my favorite people were able to attend.

Me with my Nephews, Seth, Carson, and Dylan


Me with my neices and nephews, Julia, Olivia, Madeline, and Seth


Me with my good friends, Lisa, Lesley, and Mrs. Judy Hicks


Me with my 2 sisters, Kristey and Amy

3 more days until liftoff!

Well, I have a "tentative" itinerary for my departure in 3 days! I am going to get to see my Grandma (who turned 80 in December), and old college roommate, and one of my best friends along the way. I'm also going to take a detour to see Mount Rushmore, since I doubt I will be in the South Dakota vicinity anytime soon after this trip. It should be fun. I'm starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel with my packing, although I'm really tired.

Itinerary:

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009
Leave Lexington and head to Bloomington, IN. Stay the night at Lisa and Lesley's to get a head start going to Chicago on Monday.
176.66 miles

Monday, March 23rd, 2009
Get an early start to go to my Grandma Rose's. Arrive by 2pm. Spend the afternoon/evening visiting with her.
289.77 miles

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009
Get a VERY early start! I was going to attempt to go from Chicago, IL to Rapid City, SD in one day! It would be a LONG day of driving, so I am opting to stay in Omaha, NE or thereabouts for the night.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Leave Omaha or whatever stopover city and attempt to get to Mount Rushmore with daylight and visiting hours left. I will also stay near Rapid City to get an early start visiting Mount Rushmore again in the morning (if there is more to see or cool photos to be taken).
981.70 miles over Tues/Wed

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

Visit Mount Rushmore in the early part of the day--attempt to get some good photos! I figure this is worth extra attention as it is one of the few tourist-type stops for my trip. After this, I will head to Longmont, Colorado to stay with my college roommate, Lori, and her family. It has been about 8 or 9 years since I last saw her! I'm excited to get to visit with her and see her growing family!
362.22 miles

Friday, March 27, 2009
Get an early start leaving Colorado. I "might" attempt to see Aspen as a side-trip, as I've always thought pictures of it looked beautiful. I will likely stay somewhere in Utah for the night and get up to get an early start to go to Henderson, NV to stay for a day with my really good friend, Lisa. I will get to meet her newest baby, Owen while I am there.
790.48 miles over 2 days


Saturday, March 28th, 2009
Leave Utah and arrive to visit this day with Lisa and her two boys. I will stay hopefully Saturday and Sunday night, leaving sometime mid-morning on Monday. This will have me leaving Las Vegas to head home NOT on a weekend, with all the spring break traffic. ETA for Orange County is Monday, March 30th!
257.30 miles

Monday, March 30th, 2009
I will be back in Orange County by this day!

Fall, Winter, and Spring

Last night, it snowed about 2 inches. Today, it was warm enough to melt ALL the snow that was covering the ground in the middle of the night.

When I went outside, I saw something you do not get to see in California. Because it was warm last week, some of the spring bulbs are starting to poke up through the ground. In this picture, you see the evidence of fall, winter, and spring, all in the same 2' x 2'patch of earth! You see the fall from my laziness of not raking my leaves when it was cold, the winter from the obvious remains of last night's snow, and the new bulbs peeking through showing signs of spring coming. This sure is some UNUSUAL weather!

Packing, packing, and more packing!

Well, most of today was spent packing and organizing. When I got home last night after flying back to Lexington, upon looking around my house--which I left mid-way through packing last week--I felt a bit overwhelmed. I ended up having the day off (I anticipated working at the tax office but they were not ready with my project), and was able to accomplish a lot of sorting, cleaning, packing, and even some cooking. I'm trying to use up the last of my food, so I will be eating random foods together over the next 10 days. I'm cleverly trying to trick myself into thinking I have an ongoing buffet where it is OK to snack on unrelated items for a while, haha. All in all, it has been a productive day!

Tonight the weather is COLD! The temperature has been dropping throughout the day, and tonight it started snowing...AGAIN! There is probably about 1-2 inches of accumulation outside, and it's supposed to be similarly dreary outside the next couple days. With the snow on the ground, it is hard to believe that I will be enjoying the California sunshine once more by the end of this month!

I have a "goal" date for departing Kentucky. My sister is throwing a VERY informal (mostly family) goodbye next Sunday March 22nd, and my plan is to leave KY on Monday, March 23rd. I believe that I should have been able to accomplish everything I hoped in the next 10 days. I am telling myself that if I focus on one room per day, I will be completely packed in 5 days.

I tried that today, but it was a bit difficult. I have random people stopping by to pick up and purchase various items I have listed on CraigsList, so I'm shuffling items around and it's easy to get distracted. I did accomplish at least one major project in every room, so maybe that is the best way. I think my haphazard approach more resembles what I would like to call "layers of an onion" packing. Well, on to more "onion"-ing...I probably have a few more hours of packing left in me tonight!

Ant Jeny

One of the things I have loved the most about living in Kentucky the past 7 months is getting to be an Aunt. Combined among my 3 sisters in Kentucky, I have 13 nieces and nephews. Quite a few to keep track of! Madeline, Seth, Julia, Olivia, Dylan, Carson, Mason, Zach, Jessica, Macy, Alexis, Noah, and Madison. It has been very fun to get to know each of their unique little personalities, and I love them all.

Before going on my trip to California, I visited the Johnson family, and had my portrait drawn by Julia, who is in first grade. She presented it to me with the title "Ant Jeny." I thought it was quite a fetching rendering, so I have posted it here for the world to see.

Tonight I am back in Lexington, which was 39 degrees when I landed at 5:08pm, and the temperature is steadily dropping. Back to the land of frozen tundra--more packing awaits me during this upcoming week!

Interview at Habitat for Humanity

Well, folks...here is an update in the never-ending saga of my "MOVE"...which has extended from being a MOVE to Kentucky into a MOVE to Kentucky and BACK to California. Boy will I be glad to have some "settled-ness" to my life again (someday!).

Tomorrow at 2pm I will be interviewing for an Office Manager position at the local Habitat for Humanity affiliate. I'm excited about this possibility because of several reasons. One, because I believe I would be a good fit for the actual position itself. Two, because it is a nonprofit, and that is where I have always felt at home in my career endeavors. And three, last but not least, it is nearby where I will again be living with my former room-mate and friend Rita, and I will not have a LOONNNGGG commute like I did previously when I worked down in San Clemente.

So...wish me luck everyone! Hopefully it will go well tomorrow and I will be asked for a second interview!

Ch...chh..chh..CHANGES!

OK, so, this may be a silly part of my move, but it is a huge decision to me...the changing of my dinnerware. I have used the same style of dinnerware, the "Elizabeth" pattern from Pier 1, for about 5 years now. I have loved this pattern for a long time, because it is bright and colorful and has my favorite bright colors in it--primarily green and yellow. Also, all of my friends and family in CA contributed toward this purchase with numerous gift cards to Pier 1 for Christmas and Birthdays several years back. So this pattern has sentimental value to me as well, because I think of all of them when I use my dishes.



Well, having worked for a while at Williams-Sonoma while in Kentucky, I have been brain-washed a bit about plating up food--but in a good way. As my adoptive Mom, Shirley, has always told me, food looks better plated up on white dishes (hence she has cabinets full of white dishes). There is truth to this. When you put my tomato-cream spinach pasta dish on my Pier 1 plates, it looks a little like someone spun you around on the tilta-whirl right before you eat. Lots of mixed up colors. On a solid white plate, however, you would be able to notice that I like using the spinach pasta because of its green color as well as healthful properties, and the rose-colored cream tomato sauce offsets the green quite nicely. So, as I've become more interested in cooking, I've also become more interested in the overall presentation. My Pier 1 dishes were gorgeous to look at, but not when food was on them.

So, that brings me to my new decision to make a change as part of my move, retiring my old style and moving onto a new one (while I still get my lovely Williams-Sonoma associate discount). The pattern I have selected is the Apilco French white porcelain "Tuileries" pattern.



I like this pattern best because it can function as casual dinnerware, yet you can still dress it up by changing out the salad plates. So, out with the old and in with the new on my move! I'm only able to afford 4 place settings to start with, but my plan is to get hired back on at a Williams-Sonoma here in Orange County and add to my collection over time. It will become one of the MANY wishlist items I have toward my ultimate dream kitchen being stocked fully from Williams-Sonoma. Which means that I will likely have a part-time job there during most of my adult life, LOL.

A Royal Blessing

This week from March 4-11, I had the HUGE blessing of being flown to California by my long time RFKC Camp Director friends, Brian H. and Jim M. Not only was I blown away by their generosity in flying me out to hear my former camper speak, but this trip has served other purposes as well.

For the last 10 years, I have been involved with a wonderful nonprofit, Royal Family Kids' Camps. My first summer with them was 1999, and I was a Camp Counselor for a week for two wonderful little 10 year old campers. Well, last summer I was able to reconnect with one of the campers, who is now 20 and doing VERY well. This year, she was invited to be one of the guest speakers at the banquet. Because Jim and Brian knew how much it would mean to me to be there to hear her speak, they offered to fly me to CA for the banquet.

It was really touching to be there, especially because she had no idea until I had shown up that I would be attending. She looked so beautiful and did such a fabulous job speaking. It was truly an honor to be there. It really confirmed for me that my prayers for the last 10 years for her have been answered, and God has truly taken care of her. Also meaningful to me was that I was invited to speak last year at the banquet--so to have her as part of the line-up just the year after I essentially did the same thing--very, very touching. I can't wait to see how the rest of our involvement with RFKC unfolds over the years to come!

I LOVE Honda Ya!!!

So...on my first night back in California, Tri and I went to the absolute best Japanese restaurant in Orange County...Honda Ya! It is on El Camino Real in Old Town Tustin. It has "yakatori" style food...think "Asian tapas." So, lots of small dishes but big flavor! We have not yet found any place like it, and this is the place we use to measure every other Japanese restaurant against. Usually, they do not measure up to Honda Ya quality, LOL.

Some of our FAVORITE dishes there include (in no particular order): sushi (salmon and seared tuna, especially), agadashi tofu, nasu misu (eggplant), bacon-wrapped grilled asparagus, enochi butter, miso soup, and vegetable tempura.




Coming to Honda Ya as soon as the plane landed made me feel like I was definitely HOME.