I revised my little message at the bottom. Maybe this will be more visible!

Where do I begin?

It has been quite some time since my last blog post. A brief summary of the past few month:

• February: Mike and I surprised my dad by attending a "Victoy Lane Racing Association" Banquet in Daytona; dad received the Fireball Roberts Hard Charger Award presented by Fireball's daughter Pam. It was a proud moment for my dad and our family.
  



• May: Melissa and Melanie flew out to surprise me for my birthday and we all drove down to San Diego. I was quite surpised to answer a knock at our door and see my beautiful daughters standing there. No, I didn't cry! Me, cry? We visited Hodad's in San Diego for a great burger. Mike and I saw the place on "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (DDD), and knew we had to check it out! That has become our new hobby. Dining at DDD locations. We then had the most wonderful dessert at a little place called Extravagant Desserts, and they were just that!
  
  July: Melissa, Ray, Melanie, and Jorge flew out for a family trip to a couple of our beautiful (words cannot describe) national parks. We visited Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah and then travelled to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The whole trip was an adventure, which included ATV rides through Kanab forest, but the mule ride down into the canyon was probably the highlight of our trip!
  
  
  August: For the past 6 years, the girls and I have gotten together for a "mother-daughter" weekend. This year we spent the weekend in St. Simon's Island and Jekyll Island. We always seek out the ghost hiding places by taking haunted tours, which always give us a thrill. Haven't seen any "live" ghost yet, but will keep looking.
  
  
  September: Mike and I attended his cousin Jennifer's wedding in Huntington Beach. Mike's mom is as beautiful as the first day I met her a long time ago.... :) Of course, Mike is just as handsome as ever!
  
  




• October and November: Mike and I were both able to be in JAX to help Melanie celebrate her birthday, and I was able to be there for Melissa and Ray's birthday. As usual, it was great to see family and friends. Mike managed to "work" in a little fishing.

As many of you know, I have been working diligently to lose weight, and am at the 25# mark, and recently RAN in my first 5K in Santa Barbara. I'm proud to say that i walked VERY little during the entire run. Mike participated in the half marathon, but I'll let him be the one to tell you his results :)



• Mike and I took some time Thanksgiving weekend to visit Redondo Beach to get away. It is a beautiful beach with a shop filled pier and marina. Nothing like the shoreline to refresh one's self.

• December 4: Mike and I are getting ready to head out on a bird hunting trip this weekend in Dunnigan, CA, and can't wait! It has been a while since our last birdhunting, so we hope to bag some birds. Mike can't wait to try out his new Baretta, and I'm blowing the dust off mine!

We won't be home for Christmas this year (seriosuly), but wish you all a very blessed Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Lord and Savior!

Daily, I thank God for our dear family, Christian friends, our health, and our jobs! We are blessed, and I do not take that lightly. Not a day goes by that I don't count my blessings!

Still looking around at different churches, but none feel like "home"! Pray we will find our place!

God Bless! Mike and Susan

Guest are always welcome

I've been so busy working I haven't updated my blog. Mike's job keeps him very busy, but we are thankful he has a job! He is enjoying the position, so I guess we will be here as long as they want to keep him. Personally, I think he is doing an excellent job, from where I sit, handling all the responsibility.

Back in January, we headed to Big Bear Lake. At the top of the mountain is the most beautiful lake, which was partially frozen and Big Bear Summit Ski Resort. We decided to try our hands at skiing; a first for both. Mike will be competing in the next winter olympics! Me: I will be on the sidelines cheering him on! I think I have discovered that skiing is NOT my cup of tea! Mike did great! I spent half my day trying to get out of beginner class, and the other half watching people ski, and watching people's STUFF! Next time around, I think I will try the downhill slide on inner tubes. That looks like more my speed!

We try to get away on the weekends, even if it is a short trip to Chinatown for fresh Chinese veggies and Dim Sum; the market; or just riding somewhere. We recently had a chance to visit the San Diego Zoo, which was very nice. I have a lovely photo of a proud peacock! As you can see, Mike can't handle too much fun! While I was getting a foot massage on some crazy little machine at the zoo, he decided to work in a power nap!

While in San Diego, we stopped off at Torrie Pines along the coast. The cliffs there were very beautiful.

Back around Christmas, we were given some gift certificates for Fogo De Chao Restaurant in Beverly Hills. Yes, that is where the Beverly Hillbillies dine! (Mike and Susan Eng, that is). We invited some friends from work to join us, and had a wonderful time. The food was so yummy! My new friend :) Elvia took a photo of me outside the window by the grilles. It is a Brazilain style restaurant, all you can eat, and 15 different cuts of meat: chicken, venison, beef, pork.......I didn't eat any food all day, so I could eat plenty that night.

Last weekend, we drove over to Santa Monica, took our bicycles, and rode along this very nice pathway along the coast. We rode from Santa Monica to Venice Beach. That is where all the leftover Hippies have homesteaded. That is quite an interesting bunch of folks there! Wish I had gotten some photos of them to share. I did get one of Mike on the boardwalk, and me with the bikes.

One thing there is no shortage of here in California, is a diversity of food! Mexican, Chinese, Korean, Italian, ..........We decided to try a new restaurant, a Korean BBQ, and it was a nice experience. The tables were set up with round gas grilles mounted in the center of the table. It was all you can eat, (our favorite). The waitress brought us a huge plate of several kinds of meats, which we grilled ourselves. It was quite tasty and definitely a different experience.

Until next time: hope you are all well; we miss our family and friends; please come and visit!

Day trips

As much as we miss everyone, I must confess that, we are not letting that get us down! We have a good cry (yeah, right) and then we load our things in the truck and head out for no particular destination! Those are the best kinds of trips. We get in the truck, I get out the map, Mike drives, and we never know where we will end up! Several weeks ago, we left one Friday afternoon when Mike took off early, and we headed up the coast. Mike had a destination in mind, but didn't tell me until down the road a piece.

The California coastline is breathtaking and diverse. There are beautiful sandy beaches, steep cliffs, and rocky shorelines. About 3 hours north of Ventura is a little spot on the coast where elephant seals congregate. We had discovered this little treasure a couple years ago, and this was our destination for the afternoon. We weren't disappointed. There must have been hundreds of seals all over the beach. They are fascinating to watch and listen to as there barking sounds echo across the water! It was a nice way to spend the afternoon.

I have always wanted to live in the hills of north Georgia, but have had to settle for the hills of CA, which has great hiking trails. Last Saturday we had plans to drive up I-5 to see all the snow which has fallen. It has been an unusual winter here, and just a couple miles down the road from where we live, I could see snow on the hilltops. However, we got sidedtracked along the way while trying to find a skeet/trap shooting range, and discovered a nice trail. I almost didn't make it to the top (5.1 mi.), but after a little "encouragement" from Mike, I was able to conquer the mountain (hill). Along the way we notice two places where oil was bubbling up from the ground. First time I had ever seen that before!

When I don't have time to go anywhere, I step out on our balcony and take in the beautiful sunsets!

Christmas 2009

Recently, Mike and I were able to visit Florida and had an early Christmas with our family. While in JAX, we had a low country boil dinner at Melissa and Ray's house for our Christmas dinner. That is Ray's speciality! He always does a good job on the cooking and everything was quite tasty.

Melissa and Melanie spent one whole Saturday baking Christmas goodies for the "Grands" and friends.

I had been in FL for almost a month when Mike arrived for a weeks vacation. Since the girls had plans for Christmas, I decided to return to CA early. I wasn't able to get on the same flight with Mike, but left 5 minutes ahead of him. I went through Charlotte, he through Dallas, and I beat him back to CA by about 15 minutes! It really worked out well because he flew into Burbank, got his truck, and by the time he reached the Flyaway in Van Nuys, he had to wait only a few minutes for me to arrive from from LAX by shuttle.

This was our first Christmas being so far away from our girls, but we definitely weren't alone. Mike's mom has a whole bunch of family in the LA area, so we had Christmas dinner at the home of Mike's cousin Iva. There were only about 84 family members there!

We certainly hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas taking time to celebrate the reason for the season: Jesus!

MEXICO

One nice thing about CA is all the new places we can go. Mexico is about a 3.5 hour trip if you get on the road before the sun comes up and everyone else is asleep. Last weekend we took a trip with two other couples. It was mine and Mike's first trip to Mexico and we were glad to be with Spanish speaking friends, some from Mexico, Puerto Rico, and San Salvador.

We crossed over the border into Tijuana around nightfall, and drove to Rosarito, where we spent the night at a little place. Our balcony opened up right on the beach.

The next day we drove over to Ensenada, a touristy town, where cruise ships dock. The coastal roads high upon the cliffs were absolutely beautiful!

On the way back, we stopped at the dunes to do some ATV riding. One of the guys who works with Mike brought several, so that we could all ride. That was a nice ending to the day.

After this little excursion, me, Mike, Carlos and his wife Elvia stopped in a restaurant where we enjoyed lobster (I had fajitas) and were serenaded by a wonderful Mexican Mariachi band!

The next morning we got on the road around 5 a.m and made it back to our safe haven: USA! Mexico has some beautiful places, but we definitely take our blessings for granted.

California Wildfires

Life in CA has not been dull by any means. This past month has seen horrendous fires, many of which are still burning. I get text messages on my phone to alert me to new fire locations and warnings. I have received 3 since leaving CA Saturday morning. The closest fire to our aparmtent complex was the Porter Ranch fire. It started out quite a few miles away, but spread to just a couple miles from where we live. I packed a few personal things just in case we needed to head out with short notice. The photo above is from our apartment breezeway. I had left the apartment one morning to run a quick errand. When I returned the sky was clouded with thick smoke plumes. By that afternoon, it was a couple miles to the east of us.

It is unbelievable to see how strong the Santa Ana winds are. The best way I can describe it is hurricane winds without the rain. This fire was blown so quickly by the winds and blowing embers started up hot spots all over, which quickly spread. It certainly gives me a whole new appreciation for the tough job firefighters are up against!