UCSD Employee Appreciation

I have been surprised since I started my job of all the daytime parties that go along with working here. Well, UCSD Pediatrics held an employee appreciation luau yesterday afternoon from 2PM-5PM that we could attend instead of being in the office. Of course we went! I thought it would be just some punch and maybe fruit, but I was wrong. We got there and everyone got leis, there was a tent with all sorts of food (shrimp, fruit, desserts, satay, etc.), there was a Hawaiin band, and a hula show. The weather was beautiful and it made my first day back to work in a week easier to handle :)

Memorial Day Weekend in the Midwest

Last weekend I went home for Memorial Day Weekend and it was super busy!

I got into Illinois last Friday night and drove straight to Fulton to visit my Aunt Carol, Uncle Roger, and cousins Emily and Shelby (and their little Shih Tzu who looks just like Diggy named Dori). It was one of the funniest nights I had had in a long time. Carol is good about always entertaining the priests and nuns at her church, so she had the new young priest over for dinner. Mix a priest, wine, and Carol and you have quite a comical situation. We laughed so much, I think you had to be there to appreciate how funny it was.

The next day we went to Iowa for our Cousin Libby's wedding. It was so much fun to see all of my family again. The Filloon family never has a dull celebration, and Libby looked so pretty! The kids had so much fun dancing!

The next morning my mom, dad, and I drove back to Morton and a few hours later my friend Duvy picked me up to take a roadtrip to Chicago to visit some of our college friends. It was such a fun time. I got to see Duvy, Andrea, Lawley, Panichi, and Amy! We went to our old college favorite, Bar Louie, for appetizers and drinks then to Andrea's boyfriend Peter's bbq. It was a very low key night but so much fun! Whenever I see my friends it makes me realize how much I miss them :(

The next day I got home and ate lunch with my cousin Courtney, Aunt Julie, sisters, and mom and that night we had Katie's son Tate's 3rd birthday party. During the party I started getting sad because I felt like I had barely even had time to relax, so I went home and changed my flight so that i could stay an extra day. The extra day made such a huge difference. I got to just relax and hang out at home a little, hang out at both of my sisters houses, pick Lexie and Ellie up from school, and eat sushi with everyone for dinner!

Although I was sad to leave my family, I was so excited to see Adam and Diggy. Adam picked me up from the airport and we got lunch to take home so I could see Diggy. By this time it was about 2 and beautiful out. Adam did the unthinkable and called into work and said he wasn't coming back that afternoon, yay! The three of us took a walk downtown and enjoyed the weather and being back together as a family :)

Here are the pictures from this weekend (too many to post all of them):

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbM3DRi0cuWIZ

Random stuff

Diggy has officially graduated from being in his cage all day to getting to be out in the kitchen and dining room with all of his toys and free to run around! I tried it out a few times, and he proved to me that if he's left in the rooms with wooden floors, he doesn't have accidents! Unfortunately, he has discovered that he LOVES to chew on our chairs around the kitchen table...If you ever come over to our house, just ignore the gnawing marks on the bottom of the chairs :)

On another note, last night Adam and I watched the movie Atonement. It was really good (but also really sad in a depressing way). Has anybody seen it?

I get to go home in 2 days for my cousin Libby's wedding! Yay! Adam will be staying in CA to be a single dad to Diggy, so let's hope things don't fall apart at our house while I'm gone :)

A new member to the Ralph family

Nothing better than a little, beautiful, sleeping baby!

Adam and I have a new niece! Jay, Steph, and Addison (Adam's brother, his wife, and their daughter) welcomed Samantha Jane Ralph into the world on May 14! We can't wait to see her in person!

Dates with my husband

This week has been broken up nicely due to Adam taking me out for a few mid-week dates!

Last night was his friend Joe's 26th bday, so we went to celebrate at the Turf Club (grill your own meat place similar to Alexanders but smaller with a vintage feel to it). Some of Adam's friends and one of their wives came too! It was a fun outing! We even stayed out until past 10:00! Way past our usual 9:00 bedtime, haha.

Today we got to go on ANOTHER date! Adam was dropping off someone from work at the airport so he swung by here and took me to lunch. We tried this healthy restaurant called the Naked Cafe, and I am now in love!

Fun times with a fun husband, and now we're only a day away from the weekend!

Road Trip to Tucson

Shaking it off

His first time in a pool! He didn't like it much, he was scared!

Diggy with his cousin Lexie

Curious George

Diggy standing up so he can see out the back

The nice view of sand on the way

To my excitement, about a month ago we found out that my sister Katie's family is moving to Tucson for a few years (Matt works for Caterpillar and is working there for awhile). I am so excited that I will have family within driving distance.


Katie, Matt, ane Lexie went to look at houses this past weekend, so Adam and I decided to drive there for a day/night to see where they will be living and hang out with the fam. Of course, now that we have Diggy, going out of town isn't so simple because we have to think about who can watch him, but since we could drive to Tucson, we decided to take him with us. I got a pet friendly room, we packed Adam's truck full of Diggy's toys, cage, towel, blanket, food, treats, and pillow and we were on our way in a very packed truck.


We thought it would be about a 5 hour drive but it ended up taking about 6 1/2 hours to get there with stops and all. Diggy was a perfect angel. He was so calm and snuggled/slept most of the ride, but when he saw the scenery, he realized he liked it and wanted to watch. It was so cute, he stood on his hind legs looking out the back window for a really long time! He's a Curious George!


The weather in Tucson was in the 90's so we did lots of pool lounging. We also got to see the model of a house being built that Katie and Matt ended up buying. It's really nice with a very cool/open floor plan. The neighborhood looks so fun! The town pretty much consists of this huge neverending neighborhood with pools/playgrounds every few blocks. In the center is this thing called the Clubhouse next to a man made lake that has a water park, gym, coffee shop, bar, etc. I would love to live somewhere like this when I have kids! It's safe and very walkable but also 10 minutes from Tucson.

As usual, the weekend went way too fast and I could have spent an extra few days in Arizona BUT something tells me that I might be back a time or two in the next few years :)

A few pictures and some sad news

Adam's great grilling skills for Cinco de Mayo, doesn't the tuna look good? It sure was!

Diggy likes Saturdays because he gets to get into bed with us! He has so much fun!

Doesn't Adam look wide awake :)

2nd Project of the Workshop

Strawberry Mice, cute huh?

First Project for my Workshop, "Happy Face Pizzas"

the carrot haired one is me and the broccoli hair/face is Adam, hehe

My setup at my workshop on Saturday



First off, for the bad news, our little cousin Addy (my dad's brother Tim's daughter) passed away :( She had had problems since birth, but I don't think a family could ever be prepared for losing their little girl/sister. I feel so sad for them, but it makes me feel lucky for every day I have with people I love!



On a happier note, yesterday was Cinco de Mayo, and Adam and I celebrated by having fish tacos for dinner. Adam had the great idea of taking pictures of his food on the grill (hehe) so you can see his wonderful grilling skills.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

"Guantanamera..."

Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone. In honor of the holiday, I thought I would post a picture of Kristen and her favorite Mexican musician. Hope everyone enjoys some tacos or margs after work/school!

"Mama" and "Angey" Slumber Party

Kisses for my baby!!!!!

Diggy, annoyed that I interupted his Max and Ruby Show

Unfortunately, tomorrow is a Saturday and I have to work...it actually should be fun though, I am doing a cooking demo with early child care providers and am teaching them fun, interactive recipes to do with the kids they take care of...anyways, my friend Carissa has organized this event, so I am going to meet her at our work building at 6AM tomorrow, SATURDAY!

Because of my early wake up call, I decided not to do anything tonight...Adam went out with his friends for a "guys night out" and is not expected home tonight due to their lack of the ability to admit to the next guy that they might not want that 5th, then 10th, then ?????th drink...therefore Diggy and I had a mommy/son night in!

Since I do not have a baby, nor am ready yet, I like to do activities with him that moms I know do with their kids, so the first on our list was BAKING! It is strawberry season here and I have TONS in the fridge, so I decided to make strawberry bran muffins for my work friends in the morning...Diggy is not like Ellie in the sense that she wants to dump everything in and stir, but he sure is good at cleaning up the dropped strawberry pieces/sugar spills and eating the burnt crusts out of the bottom of the pan! Needless to say, I think he enjoyed his first baking session!

Our next activity was dinner...I usually try not to give him people food so he doesn't get annoying and beg or get sick, but what slumber party is complete without yummy food??? So I made myself dinner and he looked so damn cute that I thought "What harm could VEGGIE sausage do to my angey?" So I made my little pal a piece and I think he enjoyed slumber party dinner more than baking because he ate it in about 1 second flat! He enjoyed his mommy/son dinner :)

Our last few events show how spoiled he has come. First, I talked on the phone to my sister Katie, and after verbalizing my desire to take him on our trip to visit her in Arizona, I rationalized (to myself) why it is worth getting a room just so Angey can come to meet his "Aunt Katie", "Uncle Matt", and "Cousin Lexie" instead of staying here in San Diego for the day, so I booked a room just for him :)...Then, I went to watch TV, and I had planned on watching old Sex and the City reruns to get me back into the mode before May 30 (for those of you who are disconnected from the world, that is the MOVIE PREMIERE!!!!!!!!) Unfortunately though, as weird as it seems, I turned an episode on and felt bad/weird/inappropriate watching that with Diggy!!!!!! He's like my son...I hate sitting in silence though, so I turned on what my sister Kristie's kids always watch, Noggin (little kid Nickelodeon shows, haha)...so for the past almost hour "Max and Ruby" and now "Wow! Wubbzy" have been on our TV and Diggers is sitting on the couch with me, EYES GLUED!!! Just how Sylvie used to be. It's so funny, it's like these Noggin people know how to put little ones in a spell!

Anyways, it now is time for me to go to bed, and I could put Diggy in his cage to sleep like he is supposed to...but in true slumber party fashion, everyone sleeps together! So I guess we will see how much of a pushover "Mommy" is feeling like tonight. If "Baby" gives me that beautiful look, I might just have to let him camp out in Adam's spot in our bed!!!!!!!! But, shhhh, keep it on the DL! What happens at Mama/Angey Slumber Parties stays between us :)

A favor for my mom...

I think anyone who knows me or is close to me knows that my mom has lots of health problems, and we've had lots of scares over the years. She is a type I diabetic; this means her pancreas does not make insulin at all and her body requires insulin shots to control her blood sugar levels (it's a genetic problem and the cause is still unknown). Type II diabetes, on the other hand, means your body does not use the insulin it produces, usually because you are carrying extra weight, and can usually be controlled by diet and exercise but sometimes requires the use of pills to help use insulin correctly. Just a little background because people are always asking me what type of diabetes is which and which type she has.

Well, recently my mom's eyesight pretty much disappeared, to the point where my dad and sisters have had to do daily routine stuff for her like push buttons on a microwave (sorry to you guys that I'm not there to help too!). One of the side effects of diabetes can be vision loss, and back in the day a lot of people went blind from the same thing that is happening to my mom's eyes. Well, yesterday she had a surgery to try to fix this, and from what the doctors say, she has reason to be hopeful, thanks to all of the technology we have nowadays! They think the surgery went well, but it will take 2 weeks for them to know if her vision comes all of the way back (she has a patch over one eye now). Of course, when I talked to my mom yesterday, she was acting like things are great and that nothing was even wrong. I feel so bad that she has to deal with something new every month it seems, but she does a great job of keeping a positive attitude and trying to not drag other people's spirits down.

So, my request is this: whether or not you're spiritual, superstitious, or religious, please say a prayer, cross your fingers, send positive karma, or do whatever you do to send well wishes towards my mom! She needs all of the help she can get, and selfishly, I want her to still be able to see when I have cute little kids someday :)