Happy birthday to me!

Not too bad for thirty years!

I've got all ten fingers and all ten toes...I've got the greatest mate and partner for this life journey...and I'm surrounded by some of the most loyal friends and loving family for which a girl could ever wish. It's been both a tumultuous and joyful thirty years, but they've all gotten me to where I am today...a place that I wouldn't trade for all the riches in the world!

It's sun tea time

It's that time of year, again! Time to put the jar of water and tea bags out on the patio and watch as it magically brews itself, with the sun's help, into my favorite summer beverage. Paul and I both have wonderful summer memories of sun tea and it's making. His grandma used to use old mayonnaise jars, multiple ones, and set them out in the summer's heat. My mom, too, always had a glass carafe set out in the sun during those long summer days.

Now, Paul and I carry on the tradition and, today, we made our very first sun tea of the season!

I hope you all are able to take part in those special family traditions, those seasonal rites of passage, and enjoy the blessings of the coming months!

Ladies' Spa Weekend!

This past weekend, I met a couple of wonderful girl friends (Jenn and Tanya) up at a spa in Calistoga to celebrate our 30th birthdays! Boy, did I have a blast!!!

When we got there, Tanya and I checked in for our bud and herbal baths. I had never had a mud bath before or been to a spa, for that matter, so this was a totally new experience. We were led into our own private room where we spent an hour submerged in Calistoga mud and hot spring water and then a jacuzzi tub full of herbal-scented spring water. The mud was awesome!!! They mix peat moss with the mud, effectively rendering your body weightless in the bath. You "float" in the mud as it's heated from the walls and floor of your Japanese-style concrete tub. Sooooo relaxing! While we were getting dirty, the attendant put clay masks on our faces and poured us generous glasses of lemon water. I felt like a queen!

After the mud and herbal baths, we were led to a second room where they placed cold towels over our faces and under our necks while our bodies were wrapped in hot, heavy blankets. They dimmed the lights in the room and allowed us to lay there where Tanya and I nearly dozed off to the hypnotic sounds of the waterfall and ambient flute music being piped into our room. After our "naps", we are escorted to a third room where we met up with Jenn. We all received hour-long facials and full-body massages. I don't remember much of this time. I think I DID fall asleep! The experience was magnificent, and it was a joy to share it with two truly awesome women!

After the spa festivities, Jenn and Tanya and I drove into downtown Calistoga and had lunch. We finally decided (with the advice of locals) to dine at this little Italian place on the main drag through town. There, I had the greatest Italian food I've had outside of Italy. (Side note: going to Italy truly does ruin you for future "Italian food"escapades in the U.S....the Olive Garden is just never the same again). We split a wonderful spinach and prosciutto salad and a bottle of chianti. I had a pesto cream linguine, and then we all split cheesecake and a chocolate confection for dessert! The dessert (arranged by Tanya) was brought to our table, aflame with birthday candles and a serenade by our waiter in celebration of Tanya and my 30th birthday!

L to R: me, Tanya, Jesus (our awesome waiter), and Jenn

The three of us ladies then returned to the inn and got ready for the real party to begin! Jenn, being the responsible oncology nurse she is, had to return to Oakland for work the next day. Tanya and I stayed on for the evening and took full advantage of the spa's facilities. We cracked open a bottle of wine and sat by the pool and jacuzzi for hours. We are both totally water babies, so we spent forever in the pool. Afterwards, we retired to our room and our own private jacuzzi for some more wine and great conversation. Both lasted into the wee hours of the morning. The next day, we awakened late (I love sleeping in!) and went for yet another swim! Afterwards, we reluctantly packed our bags and then drove back into Calistoga for a lovely brunch.

It's so great to have female friends who truly see life the way you do, who can share in your joys and comfort you in your sorrows, who know what it means to be a kind and gentle soul, and who value life in the same way that I do. I love being around Jenn and Tanya. They are a beautiful source of friendship and a wonderful link that I have, by-proxy, to Paul's youth. They took great care of my husband when he was going through high school and all the tumultuous years surrounding. I'm so very fortunate to call these ladies my own!

I also took a few photos on the drive home. The surroundings driving through Napa, St. Helena, and Calistoga are just breathtaking this time of year. The mustard is blooming, the hills are green, and everything is coming alive with spring. I couldn't have thought of a better way to ring in my 30th year!!!

Thanks, Jenn and Tanya, for a weekend that will go down in the record books!

The Napa Valley Wine Train...must go sometime!

The mustard was in full-bloom!

Obligate Simmons self-portrait...if you know my dad, it makes sense!

Weather watchin'

We've had some magnificent weather these past few weeks in Yolo County. As the seasons change, the leaves change, the birds get ready for their spring festivities, and the clouds do magnificent things in the sky. I looked out our back porch just the other day to see this magnificent display. I love clouds! As a kid, I would lay on our lawn and stare up at the sky, not to find shapes or figures within the puffy masses, but to identify the scientific cloud types (boy, I was a dork!). Now, I'm married to a dork whose favorite class at UCD was Severe and Unusual Weather. Together, we have spent many afternoons staring up at the sky, attempting to put the technical names (ever-fading from our aging brains) to the myriad of cloud formations to which we are treated in our little house on the tomato field!

Pancake breakfast at UCD

Last year, Melissa invited Paul and I to join her and some coworkers at the annual UCD Fire Department Pancake Breakfast fund raiser. We had a great time and didn't think twice about going again this year. We had a special treat this year...my dad joined us! Mom was off at the San Francisco flower show with her Red Hat Society group, so Dad decided to brave the Free-Republic-of-Davis and join us for breakfast!

We all enjoyed pancakes, hash browns, sausage, bacon, juice, and coffee with proceeds going to benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. All proceeds went to benefit this wonderful organization, one very near to my heart, and patrons were in-turn treated to an insider's glance of the inner workings of the UCD fire station.

It was a beautiful morning in Davis, crisp and clear! After we finished our breakfast, we watched the little daughter of Melissa's coworker demo the trucks fire hose (yep, they had activities for the kids, too!) and then we waddled back to the dairy. It was a very good day!

Paul and I are so very blessed to have our families close and to be so very close to our families! What ever would we do without them?

The daffodils are here!

Last year, Melissa gave me a lovely little miniature daffodil for my birthday. I've never grown bulb flowers. They scare me, really. They seem so delicate and so fragile, and I have been known to kill silk plants. So, the lovely flowers made their showing last year (much to my excitement!) and then promptly went into dormancy (it was fun while it lasted!).

This year, I was out in the backyard, trimming some trees, when I noticed that the dormant bulbs were starting to shoot up little, green leaves. I wished that, at that point, I had started a "daffodil watch" and photo-chronicled the emergence of this year's flowers. So, with hindsight being 20/20, I decided to at least take a picture of the flowers in their glory and resolve to post a "daffodil watch" next year.

I was so excited to see that the bulbs had survived and that the plant had conceded to bloom for us once more. Daffodils really are the happiest flowers! So bright, so cheerful...have you ever seen a daffodil bloom that was deformed or never completely opened? Me neither. There's just something about them. My mom's dad, Pa, loved daffodils and always had rows of them growing in his yard. I use to love sitting in the front yard, outside their mobile home in Elk Grove...enjoying the yellow celebrities of spring!

It's been a while...

Hello, all! I'm sorry that it's been a while since I've posted a blog. I don't have regular access to a computer anymore, so the posts have been sparse. Hopefully, I'll change that and start posting weekly, on Mondays, when Mom let's me monopolize her computer.

I've been at home, busy cleaning and organizing and getting us ready for a move. There's no new news on the UCSF front. We're still waiting, anxiously, for that little letter. My old roommate and dear friend, Kaman, told me that her letter (three years ago) came about this time in March. Yikes! So, I continue to wait...

Paul is doing well, too. Things at his work are getting a little harried and the state's inadequate budget is going to be wreaking a bit o' havoc on the cataloging department this next year, but hopefully Paul will be long gone by the time the cuts take place. He's actually looking for a job now, in hopes of beating the hatchet and, perhaps, finding something a bit more personally satisfying. We're contemplating the possibility of a zero income, two student household this next year. If I do, in fact, get into pharmacy school, Paul is thinking about going back to school in the bay area and studying something fun. The loss of income will actually allow me more financial aid for my schooling, and in my first year when the aid will be scarce, any assistance will be most useful.

This coming weekend I will be going to a spa in Calistoga with some girlfriends, Jenn and Tanya. Both Tanya and I turn 30 years old this month, Tanya on the 14th and I on the 23rd. We decided that a girlfriends' spa getaway would be a lovely treat for us all. So, I'll be meeting the ladies Sunday morning for a mud bath, massages, facials, an evening's stay at the spa's hotel, and a wine tasting tour of the area the next day. I'll have pictures and details next week!

Alrighty, that's a quick and dirty catch-up on the Domer Family! I'll keep you posted as best I can and will definitely let you know when we FINALLY hear from UCSF.

Happy spring to you all!!!