Last but not least

This little cutie just turned 23!




Wow, I survived all the celebrations of June! Saturday was Nicole's 23rd birthday. My Dad and step mom happened to be in town for a family wedding,so they got to help celebrate. I had hoped to have better pictures of everyone that was here, but when I looked at the ones I had taken,they were all a bit blurred and not very flattering. Nicole and Pierre came over after lunch and we went to see the newest Pixar film (Wall E.) It was a very cute film. My Dad and step mom returned from the wedding in time to have Nicole's birthday dinner. I forgot to take photos of the actual dinner. Nicole chose this salmon pasta, that I concocted years ago, for her dinner. Very simple and fresh for summer. I ordered a cake, I would have liked to have made one, but with guests and just being too darn tired, I decided not to torture myself! I hope she had a good time. I can't believe she is 23! Happy birthday Nicole!!!!

Now, onto relaxing for the rest of the summer, doing some sewing and embroidering I hope,something to post on here other than all my family's celebrations! :)

I was walking out to the mail box when I saw this

I went out to get the mail today,and while I was walking by the telephone poll, I heard this very high pitched sound. I thought at first that it was some crazy electrical happenings above on the wires. I looked closer and saw this insect, which I believe is a cicada. I never thought California had them. I heard them in the South of France and in Indiana,where my Dad lives,but never here! It let me get fairly close and then got spooked. Has anyone else out there from California seen one of these guys?
It is so smoky from all the fires, that seeing this cicada out there, you would think it was the apocalypse!

Meet Clementine

This is Nicole and Pierre's dog Clementine, she is a Pomeranian. When we visited them last Friday, Nicole playfully put these sun glasses on her and she didn't seem to mind them on! She walked around their apartment for some time before finally taking them off. She is very bright and cute.
I thought I'd start the post out on a positive note, but I do have some sad news to report on my sister's puppy Oliver, that I posted on back in May. Poor little guy has some major birth defects with his heart and apparently is also having some problems with his intestines. My sister decided to turn Oliver over to this very kind vet, who specializes in his breed. Last report on him, was that he was not doing very well, but since my sister lives by one of the countries best vet schools(U.C. Davis), the vets are taking him there for surgery. All of them have fallen in love with him and want to try everything before they give up. He is such a doll, that it has been heart breaking for the kids and my sister! So, everyone out there say a little prayer for Oliver that he pulls through all his surgeries. Sorry this was a downer post,but since I did blog about Oliver, I thought you should know. :(

One Birthday down, one more to go!

Birthday boy opening gifts
wonderful Ice cream shop, Berkeley California

David chose the mocha chocolate bombe

David's birthday was on Friday,and he decided to start out his birthday celebration by having breakfast at Sear's Fine Food in San Francisco,where we met Nicole and Pierre. After helping Nicole and Pierre with a few more moving details, we then went into Berkeley to David's favorite wine shop, Kermit Lynch,and used his gift certificate he received from my Dad and Susan. A brain storm hit as to where we should get his birthday cake,and in memory of childhood birthdays, we decided to go to "ICI" and get an ice cream cake."ICI" is French for here, as in the ice cream is made on the premises. This ice cream shop was opened up by alumni of Chez Panisse. Very adorable,and decorated with pure eye candy. David decided on a small chocolate/mocha bombe. It was so good!!
Before we had the lovely dessert, we went to see the Indiana Jones movie. That was fun and nice to get out of the heat!
We have been on a whirlwind of celebrations as you can see by all my posts, hopefully there will be other things on here besides all our family celebrations.But wait there is one more birthday on the 28th..... Last one I promise. Sorry this post seems so choppy, I think my brain is fried from all the food and dessert in the last weeks!

Our anniversary celebration

Their garden across the street.




We had such a wonderful anniversary celebration yesterday at The French Laundry in Yountville. All the accolades are very well deserved for this fine restaurant!! We got to keep the cute little laundry pin and the waiter gave us copies of the menu to take home also. Wonderful wait staff, that could have been stuffy, but they were so wonderful and attentive. We had such a relaxing time and gorgeous food to eat.
Even though it was quite warm out yesterday, the sky was blue and it made everything in the wine country seem to sparkle.
A little shout out to CeCe and her husband, since their anniversary is the same day. Hope yours was wonderful guys!

Happy 25th anniversary to us!

June 18th, 1983


As most milestones you reach, you can hardly believe you have reached it. The picture above sits in the living room, and is a constant reminder of our special day on June 18th,1983. My dress doesn't look too 80's does it? Notice I don't show the bridesmaids though.....Their dresses do look very much like the 80's.
In all seriousness though, That special day I married my very best friend,and love of my life, who continues to be at my side for better and worse. Some days it seems like it was just yesterday that we got married,but when you see your grown children, and a wedding photo that shows just how young you really were when you got married,you know 25 years has past. We got married young, but there has never been a day that I thought I made a mistake in doing so. I think we really accomplished most of the goals we set out in our early days as a married couple.
Our moto to get through the hard times and even the good times is to constantly listen to each other with patience and respect. I see a lot of couples that seem to lose that quality of their relationship and it makes me sad. This has been a very emotional week for me with two milestones,one being Caitlin graduating the other our anniversary of course, so forgive me if this post doesn't truly capture the way I feel about our very special day. All I know is that I'm one very lucky lady to have found my "Prince Charming."

Coming up for air

The spread for graduation
On the way to the ceremony
Marching in...




Two Dads
Treats for Fathers day

Wow, I've been gone for a few days! I meant to post yesterday, but couldn't download the pictures. So today I'm trying to get caught up.
Graduation was good, but while we were preparing everything it was very hot out and difficult to get things accomplished without passing out. Luckily it cooled off for the graduation ceremony in the evening. The next day was a free day, so we took my dad and step mom to the city and checked out the new exhibit in the De Young. My favorite glass blower Dale Chihuly was showing some of his work. That was fun,but that is about as much energy as we all had, then we headed back home to relax. Father's day turned out very pleasant with all of us just enjoying each others company and eating!! My dad and step mom had to leave for the air port in the early evening, so we decided to have a late lunch out on the patio. All in all a very pleasant day.
Now I'm coming up for a bit of air until we have the next festivities, which include our 25th wedding anniversary tomorrow and then David's birthday on Friday. Lets not for get also on the 28th it will be Nicole's birthday! I always breath a big sigh of relief when July rolls around.
I'm off today to help Nicole and Pierre move to their new place.

Tag you're it!

Stockholm Sweden,2003

Coming up for a bit of air from all my chores for this week,and I noticed I was tagged by Dawn at:The Gahan Girls

Here are the Rules:

Rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player tags 6 people and posts their names. Then the player goes to each of the “named” people’s blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. If you’ve been tagged, you do the same, letting the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer. Your answer, of course, is the answer to the following questions. Here we go!

First I thought I'd mention the above picture,since I think that it is fun to always have something pretty to look at when you visit. This was taken on a trip we took to Stockholm in the summer of 2003. Lovely visit and a nice switch from dying of a heat wave in Paris! Anyway enjoy the photo.

Back to the tag.


1.What was I doing 10 years ago: Pretty much the same as what I'm doing now. My girls were younger,so I was doing the full time stay at home mom thing,and doing creative things when I could.

2. What are 5 things on your to do list today: finalize menu for Friday,clean bathrooms,wrap some gifts,laundry,grocery shopping.

3.Snacks I enjoy: Oranges, Chocolate cake with a great cup of coffee, and for savory,I love hummus with chips.

4.Places I've lived:
Red Bluff, Trinidad, Arcata, Eureka, Monterey,Walnut Creek, Pleasant Hill.All in California, then two years in France.

5.Things I would do if I were a Billionaire:
Set up my girls with their dream homes and us as well. Do a lot of traveling. Then give a lot of it away to some very deserving people.

Who shall I tag this time..... how about Andrea , Linnea Paulina, Amy Nerm and Kitty, Valerie , Melissa

Wish I could enjoy my bath like this!

This is Lucie bird taking her bath. Cleaning out her cage is jut one of the many things I have on my to do list this week. It is the calm before the storm over here at the Mackey house. Friday is Caitlin's graduation, and family will start to arrive on Thursday from out of town. We are having a gathering at the house, then off to the school before 7:00 pm when the ceremony starts. I hope my stamina holds up until the weekend. Not getting enough sleep over here,because early this morning once again,we had another earthquake!! 4:30am. I could not go back to sleep to save my life,so right now I'm running on fumes! My posts might be a bit spotty as I trudge through this whole week, but I may have something to post so stay tuned.
Happy Monday all, and wish me luck this week.

I love the Bay Area But....

I love living in the San Francisco Bay Area,but sometimes I get a little freaked out about earthquakes. Last night I was watching the 11:00 p.m news and I had this feeling that one was going to happen. It felt still and odd in the house to me. I got ready for bed and drifted off to sleep......and then SHAKE SHAKE!! That was about 1:45 a.m. It woke me up and I thought to myself, See! I knew one was going to happen tonight! Drifting back off to sleep,for what seemed like only a second, again....SHAKE SHAKE....That was 2:05am. That one felt harder. I couldn't really go back to sleep very well because I was thinking about it starting all over again.
My daughter sleeps through a lot of these quick shake ones that are about 3.0 on the scale,but this morning she said, "Hey, was there an earthquake last night?" She told me that she incorporated the earthquake in her dream,and wasn't too sure.

This got me thinking about the last big one and that we are due any time for another one of 6 or greater. The last one in 1989, I was pregnant with Caitlin,and working at a children's clothing store. Right before it happened, I felt really nauseated and had a splitting headache. I looked out of the window as the earth began to move,and saw the road almost moving in a wave pattern,and all the street lamps rocking back and forth. Afterwards, I really didn't think much of it,until my husband came home from work,and we went to pick up my oldest daughter from preschool. We turned on the radio,and all the reports started to flood in about the Bay Bridge collapsing. David was so lucky to have decided that day to come home early with a co-worker,had he not, he would have been stuck in San Francisco!
Watching China suffering from their latest quake, really makes me wonder, When is it our turn??
Sorry this is a scary and depressing post,but I just couldn't shake that odd feeling I had last night in the wee hours of the morning.
I love the city by the bay,but sometimes I get a little scared.

Corners of my home

The Lady And The Unicorn, Cluny Museum Paris
A copy I bought

When I visited France for the first time in 1993, I fell in love with all the tapestries that were in all of the Chateaux that we toured through. At the time we couldn't really afford to buy replicas that were for sale in many of the museums and shops. A lot of them are produced by machine,but in the traditional way, mostly in Belgium. You can buy fairly inexpensive ones made out of cotton and not loomed on a machine,but printed. The one pictured above is my favorite and has a very mysterious story attached to it. The original is in the Cluny Museum in Paris, along with the other five. I loved that museum,mainly because of all the stone work inside and how all the tapestries looked so gorgeous hung on the bare stone walls. If you ever go to Paris, you must go to this museum! There are six large tapestries in a darkly lit room that represent,they think, the five senses. The last one,"The lady and the Unicorn," is the one that has a bit of mystery to it. The other five clearly show imagery that leads art historians to believe their theories. But the sixth isn't as cut and dry. There was a book written a few years back by Tracy Chevalier,and it is called, "The Lady and The Unicorn." She takes a lot of liberties with the theories, but it makes for a fun read.
I knew I had to have one of the tapestries of that sixth one. The one that I have was on the pricey side given that it is %100 wool and machine loomed, not printed. There is a really cool tag on the back side of it showing who made it etc. This is one of my favorite things that we bought in France. Thought I'd share it, and maybe spark a bit of interest in the story behind the tapestries. Enjoy!

Part two of the Ball gown

Well, the senior ball has come and gone. I really couldn't get a lot of pictures with the digital camera that day,since she was spinning around trying to get ready. Caitlin went with her pal Phoebe. I'm proud of her that she decided not to sit at home and miss her prom because she didn't have a "date." I think it is the case of the pretty girl, I'm biased here, not having a date for the prom. If it were me, I probably would have stayed home. But I think I raised her to be more confident than me, and not worry about silly things like not having a guy take you to your senior prom. She had a great time and the pictures of the San Francisco city hall were very pretty. After the prom, they all got to see the fireworks that were put on for the Black and White Ball that was being held across the street.
We arrived in the city pretty early,so we took the girls to The Ritz for a little something to eat and drink,and also to let her sister,who lives in the city, see her little sister all dolled up. Later, David and I went out for dinner and a movie. I was so exhausted by the whole affair, that I fell asleep in the theater! Not a good thing to do when the movie is Norwegian with subtitles!! Anyway..... She did have a great time and some good memories. I think she was the best dressed, but then again that is my biased opinion:)