Summer

On July 1st I said that tomorrow summer is over. I got a lot of negative stares from that...but I was right...this summer flew by way to fast. Brian and I had a lot planned, mostly house projects that we wanted to start and complete, and with summer officially over we're disappointed in how short it was and how little we've accomplished.

We did enjoy our summer, we had a fantastic backyard party in July and we went on a, just about 2 week, trip to the east coast.

We first visited my best friend Mallory in Virginia. We mostly just spent time with each other, talked, went to the movies, talked, saw Virginia Beach's boardwalk type area, talked, and visited Williamsburg.

After visiting Mallory we flew down to Florida and meet my family for a week long Disney World Vacation! We enjoyed visiting the four theme parks and spending time with the family especially my nephews.

Just a few of the animals from the Animal Kingdom Park.

We enjoyed the rain and how cute the nephews looked in their little ponchos.

The guys and me at Epcot's World Showcase, Germany.
Their castle is SO much prettier than ours!
Singing in the rain! At Hollywood Studios.

Happy One Year!

It's hard to believe that a year has already passed by! It feels just like yesterday was our wedding!

On our anniversary we had lunch at Strawberry Farms, our wedding site! We walked around and reminisced about our wedding.

After a homemade dinner, similar to our reception dinner we had cake!
We had a very small piece of our wedding cake's top layer from last year...Not very good...kind of dry...old tasting....followed by a nice slice of cake from our anniversary cake! Thank you, Great Dane Bakery!
We also celebrated by going away on a little 4 day trip to Phoenix, Arizona. Brian wine and dined me at "A Different Point of View"...Which did have an AMAZING view. We were there for sunset!

Also, Brian took me for my first time ever horseback riding! I loved this and can't wait to do this again!
The rest of our trip was full of eating, sleeping, and by the pool time!

Supervised Outdoor Time

Okay it's time for me to be crazy cat and dog lady! I love my little babies and decided last weekend that the kids should be able to have some outdoor time. So Saturday morning the whole family spent a good hour or so of our morning out back. It was so nice to enjoy the backyard to watch Sophie and Stewy explore the backyard.

Every now and then everyone would stop exploring and check in on each other. They are sometimes too cute!
Sophie spent the whole time chasing bugs. I have never seen a cat pant before this! She took a long cat nap when we went inside:-)

Jack had a blast having everyone outside. He even sneaked inside and brought out a toy to play with.
I was surprised that Stewy didn't try to jump the wall and join the neighbors cat ( Sophie's Grandma) like the good ol' times. He however decided to sniff and lay around.

I enjoyed watching everyone and having "family time" I think this might become a weekly event in the Geiss household.

Major Hoots!!!!

Okay, so it's catch up time....This spring has been pretty neat. Over Memorial weekend Brian, our friend Allison, Jack the dog, and I, went on a little mini vacation to Palm Spring. Palm Springs was the perfect retreat from the stresses and busy-ness of home.
Allison and I at our favorite Palm Springs Mexican Restaurant.

The following weekend while Brian was away for the week in Florida working. I had the pleasure of joining Allison at KROQ's Weenie Roast!!! This was a blast and I can not wait for next years!

In the frenzy excitement of being in line to enter Verizon Amphitheater I forgot to bring my sunscreen in to the concert with me...So I had to wear my sweater and buy a hat. But it all was worth the hassle thanks to these 3 bands.
Foster The People
Mikel and Airborne Toxic Event...I LOVE YOU!!!!
Neon Trees!!!....When I first saw them walk on stage I thought oh I'm not going to like this...Well I loved them so much I'm seeing them again in July!!!
Allison and I right after the first set ended.... with our nifty new hats!!!

Spring Break!

This past week was spring break for me. Brian took the week off of work also and we had so many ideas of things we could do.

The first idea we had was to get out of town. Anywhere relaxing.

Then Brian lured me into staying home with the thought of putting Bamboo floors in upstairs!

Well that fell through when we found out that the floors we want are on back order....

So we decided to do some fun things here and there and some home projects here and there.

What we really ended up doing was, sleeping in, cleaning, laundry, potato potluck with our amazing neighbors, movie watching, happy hour, family gatherings, and we went to the San Diego Zoo!!!

I have to say that going to the zoo is pretty high up there on my favorite part of break. I loved visiting all of the creatures!!! I'm such a freak and I'm sure people around me thought so when I baby talked to the animals...(I can't help it when they are cute, baby talking to them is just uncontrollable then) So here are some of my favorite creatures we visited.

Giraffs!!!! Not only do they have the best wild animal print ever and are amazingly tall and fun to watch, these guys recently had a baby!.... The baby Giraffe is so new it didn't have a name yet. ( I was disappointed I missed my chance to feed them)


Okay these guys were my absolute favorite!!! I love these big kitties!!! The Lioness pranced around and played for us and the Lion roared for me. I loved it! He was so loud!!!! I am disappointed that I missed him eating his meaty bone, I would have loved to see that! ( I know weird that a vegetarian wants to see a lion ...and other big cats...eat their meaty bone treats.)

Zebras!!! I loved these guys too!
This little Meerkat barked for us!
I just wanted to cuddle with the Koalas.
GRIZLY BEAR! OMG! These guys were soooo neat! Very happy I got to see them.
Oh look at this lovable creature I encountered on the zoo's Skyfarri.
And of course mama hippo and her baby hippo!!! We had the pleasure of watching mom give her baby some swim lessons! I just wanted to hug and baby talk this little big guy so badly. They were too cute!!!!

Of course these guys are just a few of the animals that I loved seeing. There were many more like the elephants, tigers, jaguars, peacocks, and more! ....I am very happy that Brian took me to the zoo!

Where I disappeared to

I am exhausted! And it's a good thing! If you haven't noticed I have disappeared...well I feel like I have. ... I started my long term substitute teaching job at the end of February! Even though I am beyond busy, I am having such a great time being teacher! It is a lot of work and was at first more work than I was expecting however, just the experience of it all is well worth the work. I am so proud of the changes I have made in the classroom and absolutely enjoy all of my kidos!

Anyways I thought I would share a little peek at where I have disappeared to.

Dolores the teacher I'm subbing for left the teacher board blank for me. So I took over it first thing to give the students an idea of who I am.

Then I changed the classroom from rows to groups of tables. I love the flow of the classroom now. Followed by adding a classroom theme....anyone who knows me knows I do my best work and creative thinking when I have a theme to work with....so sense in 5th grade the students need to learn about states and capitols I decided to have a Road Trip USA theme. I took pictures from my own road trip years ago with Brian and made cute road sign table names. I love them! And much to my surprise my students do to!

The first couple of weeks were a rough adjustment and was a lot of work to get the class to function and to look the way I would like. I really couldn't have done it with out my loving and supportive husband and my friends! Thank you!!! You guys are the best!!!

As you wish

As some of you may have known my Grandma Fern passed away on January 8th. Even though we knew this was going to happen it doesn't make anything any easier. I still and will always think of and miss her presence.

My Grandmother was a very loving and classy lady. That is why I tried my hardest to full fill her last wish in an elegant matter. Today my family, my Grandma's close friends, and I finally got to say our farewell just the way my grandma wished, eating lunch and sharing stories.

My Grandma wrote her wishes on a small piece of paper. She wished for us to have lunch at Las Brisas in Laguna Beach. As well as kiss a rose in silent prayer and send a petal in the breeze from the cliff by the restaurant. I had roses for all of us and tied a copy of Grandma's last wish on them, for everyone to see and keep.


The view was gorgeous where we sent the petals off while thinking of fond memories of Grandma. It was such a serene moment to share with everyone.