My mom gave me this onion-like Amaryllis bulb with very simple directions. I planted it and it’s been growing several inches every day. When we left for Colorado we were afraid it would bloom and die before we could get back to see it, but when we returned it was in it’s full glory! We also thought it was going to be white, but it is bright red!
2001:
-We met at CSUMB on our first day of college in August, 2001
-We met lots of our best friends and became close friends with each other
-Our dorm 208 floods
-free aquarium days
-Brittany’s first trip to Weed
-We worked at the Gap together
-Catalyst concerts
2002:
– We team up in science class on the Mega Tsunamis
-Brittany moves to Hawaii for the summer, Sol stays in the dorms but looks forward to regular postcards from Hawaii
-Kelp kraze
-We became best friends
-Sol moves back to Weed in November, 2002
-We realize we are in love December, 2002, and start a winter of courting during visits in Mt. Shasta, Monterey and Sacramento
-Brittany starts working for CSUMB admissions as a tour guide
2003:
-We are officially a couple
-Sol moves to Florida from 2/03-4/03 then comes back to live in Monterey
-Brittany becomes a CSUMB orientation leader
-Sol enrolls back at CSUMB for fall as the Student Activity center program director
-We go on regular camping, hiking and beach excursions to Big Sur
-Brittany moves off campus to Sunbay apartments
2004:
-Brittany and Amanda live together on Antietam
-Brittany and her family go to Tahiti
-Amanda graduates and moves to So Cal
-Brittany moves in with Kyle on Edde Ct.
-Amanda moves back in with Brittany and Kyle on Edde Ct. after leaving So Cal
-Sol gets “Tiger” his black golf
-We adopt our first pet, Kona kitty
-Sol becomes a serious student, earning straight A’s
-We spent Thanksgiving in Pismo beach with family
-Sol lives with Hannah and Alex
-We spent our anniversary partying in San Francisco
2005:
-Brittany graduates from CSUMB with a bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies after finishing capstone thesis and earning straight A’s
-Kyle graduates and moves back to PVille- Jon, Sol and Alex move in to Edde Ct. with Amanda and I
-We spend a month in Oahu on what is known as the “best date ever”, with visits from Todd, Ryan and Kelley
-Brittany starts substitute teaching in Salinas, Seaside, Monterey and Carmel and applying to grad school
2006:
-Amanda and Jon move out of Edde, Mason and Joe move in with Alex, Sol and I
-Brittany substitutes through the end of the school year and then nannies for the summer
-Brittany starts grad school at UCSC to get her masters degree and teaching credential
-We move out in to our first very own apartment on Yorktown ct.
-We adopt Sylvester
-Brittany starts student teaching in Watsonville
-Sol begins his senior year of HCOM and starts his capstone
-Sol cuts off his trademark long locks
-We celebrate our anniversary on a Mendocino trip
-Sol visits his Hasidic family in Crown Heights, NY
-We take our first Vegas trip for Kelley’s 21st birthday
-Sol gets a job for Firiano motors and starts wrenching on Ferraris
-We spend a lot of time bonding at the gorge in Big Sur
2007:
-We go to Costa Rica for Tahoe and Shoshana’s wedding
-Kelley and Roger get engaged in March
-Sol graduates from CSUMB with his bachelors degree
-Brittany graduates from UCSC with her masters in Education and multiple subject and art teaching credentials
-We say goodbye to Monterey after 6 years and move to an apartment in Folsom
-We both start “real” job interviews, Brittany spends the summer in the UCSC quarry finishing her thesis
-Brittany gets a job at the Buckeye Union School district in July and starts 5th grade in August
-Sol starts working at Bisco in sales, a management training program
-We adopt Zeus in May, right before we move from Monterey
-We get engaged on October 18th, 2007- the same night as Amanda and Jon!
-Yehudah and Shaina get married in December
2008:
-Kelley’s wedding shower
-Kelley and Brittany’s Vegas bachelorette party
-Kelley and Roger’s wedding
-Mark and Lindsey’s wedding
-Brittany’s first year of teaching ends
-Our wedding at the Coloma Resort on the summer solstice, June 21st
– Our honeymoon in Grand Cayman, 2 weeks of love and leisure
-Brittany begins her second year of teaching 5th grade at Buckeye- in the middle of a construction zone
-Amanda’s bachelorette party in Hollywood
-Amanda and Jon’s wedding
-Jill and Brandon’s wedding
-trips to O.C. to see the Smiths
-Bianca graduates!
-Buckeye’s 150th anniversary celebration
-In April, we moved to a bigger more awesome house in Cameron Park
2009:
-Celebrated our first Valentine’s day as a married couple
-Brittany finished her 2nd year of teaching 5th grade and recieved tenure
-Sol got offered a promotion in his company which required him to move to San Jose which he denied, and then left the company
-We celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary together camping in the beautiful spot we got married
-Kyle and Stephanie’s wedding
-Sol went to Kyle’s Bodega Bay bachelor party
-Brittany went to Leslie’s bachelorette houseboat trip and Ladiespalooza girls weekend
-Leslie and Casey’s wedding
-Brittany starts teaching 7th and 8th grade Art at Rolling Hills Middle School
-Sol starts grad school at UCF in Sacramento to recieve his MFT, Masters in Family Therapy
-Sol starts substitute teaching
-We go camping, A LOT!
-Brittany gets addicted to yoga
-Brittany takes art classes at night through FLC
-We go to Weed twice to visit Rivkah
-We take an 8 day trip to Colorado for a family Christmas in Denver and snowboarding in Breckenridge
2010:
We can’t wait to see what the next decade will bring for us!!
-Brittany and Sol
This is how Zeus and I fell asleep on the couch last night. Spooning.
The first dish made in the Kamman kickasserole dish was DELICIOUS! Sol made Amanda’s yummy and easy enchiladas. They were so good, it would be a crime for me not to share the recipe.
1 – store-bought rottiserie chicken
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
1 yellow onion
1/2 lemon
shredded cheese
TJ’s Enchilada sauce
Corn tortillas
Tear off bite size pieces of chicken and put in a bowl with cilantro, onion and some handfuls of cheese. Mix this all together with some garlic salt, lemon, and cumin. Heat some corn tortillas in the microwave to make them soft then stuff with the mixture and roll. Then you just put in baking dish, cover with sauce and cheese and bake at 35o for about 35 min. I like to bake it covered for the first 25 min then take the foil off, if you do this make sure to spray some cooking spray on the foil – this makes it so that the cheese on the top won’t stick to your foil.
Our friends Emily and Kevin Desai had their 2nd child, a BOY, last week. He is beautiful and healthy. Here is a picture of Finn that his proud auntie shared on Christmas. Sol and I get to meet Finn on Thursday, we can’t wait!!
There is an outside version of each one of our indoor cats, an outside-Kona, outside-Sylvester and outside-Zeus. They hang out in our yard and confuse our cats constantly. They often sit and stare at each other. Sol and I have even written a song called “Kona vs. Kona” about Kona and her outside doppelgänger. Here is rare evidence of the inside-outside cat phenomenon.
Our Christ-mukkah present from Shauna, the coolest cassarole dish ever. Now my casserole can kick your casserole’s ass!
It finally happened. The magical occurrence that children and teachers everywhere dream of. A snow day. TWO snow days to be exact. On Monday, December 7th at 5:25 am I got that magic call that school had been cancelled because of “inclement weather.” Ah inclement weather, my 2 new favorite words. This day, my first snow day, was a particularly magical day for me. The night before was Sol and my 7 year anniversary. We had gone to my parents house for dinner, had a few glasses of wine…we had gotten home later than I had wanted to and I wasn’t feeling so good and went to bed. My normally anal full-preparedness night-time routine had been dismissed in favor of a wine stouper into bed. I didn’t make my lunch. I didn’t pick out an outfit. I didn’t pack my teacher bag or even know where my lesson plan book or car keys were. It was totally unlike me…and it looked like I was about to experience the first “hungover” morning of my entire teaching career. UNTIL….the magical snow day happened.
It snows at our house, like….never. It did once last year, but it was a small amount and melted by noon. We are just over 1,000 ft. and not high enough to usually get snow. UNTIL…Monday, December 7th. At 4:45 am, Sol and I woke up. The house let out a big sigh, and the power went out. The silence was deafening enough to wake Sol and I. My head was pounding, and it was too quiet to go back to sleep. I had some water while Sol peered out the window…”SNOW!!” Everywhere, falling heavily and blanketing everything. I got back in bed, but couldn’t fall asleep. I was thinking how much my head hurt, about the lesson I was teaching that day, how much my head hurt, how I was going to handle a day of teaching in the snow, how I was going to get to work, how much my head hurt, what I was going to wear, did I mention my head hurt? Then at 5:23, through the dark and silence I heard my cell phone beep with a robo-call from the superintendent. “The Buckeye School district will be closed today, Monday December 7th, due to inclement weather.” Music to my ears. I jumped out of bed and literally did a dance. My headache magically vanished. The world was right again! My lack of preparation had somehow been rewarded, karma was on my side! Sol was set to sub that day at a school in Placerville in an emotionally disturbed program…and his school was closed too. We couldn’t go back to sleep, it was all too exciting and magical. We still had no power though, and Sol needs his morning cup of coffee to function, so we bundled up at 6:30, got in the kiwi, and headed to the Starbucks down the street.
Cambridge was a mess! The snow was thick on the roads and still coming down hard. People were slipping all over the roads and completely forgetting basic traffic laws. There was still no power on half of Cambridge. We made it to Starbucks, and it was closed. So was CVS…fail. Although we learned the 4wd kiwi is a great snow car, it was a little scary coming back up our steep driveway. It took Sol 2 attempts, a lot of sliding around, and what he refers to as a “running start” to get the little frozen kiwi up to our house. It was still dark, snowing hard and we still had no power. We went into “camping mode”, using the camping lantern and stove to make breakfast and instant coffee. My headlamp even came in handy for a couple of household chores. After breakfast we realized that being snowed in with no power was not as exciting as we thought, and our house was getting cold quickly. We went back to bed for a few hours…we had been up since 4:45…and the covers were the only way to keep warm. Monday afternoon we did a better job of entertaining ourselves, we watched movies on both laptops until the batteries died, charged our iphones in the cars when they started to go dead, and wrote Christmas cards by candlelight. We had just bought over 200 dollars worth of groceries for the week and our upcoming party, which we surrounded with pots of snow to keep cold.We had a visit from the Wards on the way back from their sledding adventure, and Shannon surely thought we were scary and bizarre for hanging out in the dark! Around dinner time we were getting cold and frustrated with the power outage..we went out to dinner and then headed to my parents for a warm shower and a sleepover. Around that time I got the next official call…Tuesday, ALL of the districts in El Dorado County would be closed! The miracle continues! Thanks to my Cameron Park facebook friends, I realized that our power had been restored around 10:30 that night and we headed home to warm up in our house. Tuesday was an even more magical snow day…with power! The snow all stuck, and Tuesday it was a fabulous, glittering, sunny white wonderland. I made Chanukah sugar cookies for 6 hours that afternoon as I enjoyed the snow surrounding us! My first snow days were everything I had hoped for and more!
Here we are soaking in the hot tub with some of the Baers after a long day on the mountain in Breckenridge. Trevor, the easily influenced 8th grader, was providing entertainment for us. Little did he know Bill and Sol had a plan of their own…
all you need is love. 