Latest Cakes

Here are my latest cake creations--some are a few months old but thought I would still put them on. My friends kids gave me lots of practice.

Mickey Mouse was for Wyatt--he had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Party.
Quincy celebrated his second birthday with a Cars theme party.
This cake was for Haileys princess party.
Elle turned 4 and had a horse party complete with a petting zoo.
Tanner tested my skills with the Ironman themed party.

At Last

Season 5 starts today. I love BRAVO.

Graduation Day

What a wonderful day! The weather was perfect and we were surrounded by some many family and friends. Morris worked so hard during dental school and it was nice to celebrate Morris and all of his many accomplishments. Way to go babe, YOU DID IT!

The cheering section--Thanks to Bill, I think Morris actually heard us cheering for him.
Morris receiving his hood.
Look at all of those Doctors
Our California family. Thank you Brooke and Bill for all of the wonderful memories and support, we love and miss you!
WAHOOOOOO!

It's About Time

I have been putting off this post for as long as possible. Leaving our life in Los Angeles has been much harder for me than I was expecting. The perfect weather, beautiful beaches, Disneyland, fabulous restaurants and museums are hard to live without. Oh gosh, I am already crying…I thought I was beyond this now. I will miss all of these things for sure but what I will miss most is our weekends spent with my sister, Brooke and her family and our great friends from UCLA. We made some wonderful friends while in LA and we are so grateful for your friendship and the many memories we share with each of you. We look forward to many reunions with each of you.

Below are pictures of our last month we spent soaking up the city.

Our last trip to the beach—we loved Ocean Park beach. The boys played hours of Bocce while Marissa and I chatted about little Lucy who was going to make her a mommy very soon.

The Girls—we snuck away from packing boxes and graduation festivities to have one last girl’s night out. We went to dinner and saw “Pillow Talk” at the Glendale Theatre. Miss you girls!

The Last Supper—The institute director hosted the graduating students and their families to a nice dinner. Morris spent many hours studying for Boards and every final at the institute; it is still hard to believe Morris won’t be spending his nights studying there. Thank you Bro. Neeley for always making us feel at home.
OKU Banquet—Morris was inducted into the OKU (Dental Honor Society). UCLA hosted a very nice dinner for all of the new members, way to go babe!

Disneyland—Our last visit to Disneyland, this was a sad day. We are officially Disney geeks now; we took the “Walk in Walt’s Footsteps” tour. It was a behind the scenes tour of the park and all kinds of interesting facts about Walt Disney and the original creators of Disneyland. My favorite part was riding on the Lilly Belle train, it is a special caboose designed by Walt’s wife-Lillian. The tour was very interesting and recommend it for anyone who is interested in becoming a Disney geek.

Oh and Morris made the top 10 for the day on Buzz, he was happy to walk away from Buzz for the last time victoriously.
Here is a picture of the Lilly Belle.
And here is Walt with his Lady.

Miss Saigon—Morris had a patient who would give us tickets to see performances at a local theatre. We were able to see Miss Saigon before leaving LA, not my favorite Broadway show but still fun to see one time.

Reagan Library—Our last visit to an LA museum. I had been trying to find time to get to the Ronald Reagan Library and Museum before we left. We made it just in time, about a week before leaving town. My favorite part was actually the dress of First Lady Nancy Reagan but it was nice to experience the life of a great American President.
The Second Last Supper—It seemed like everyday before graduation we found another excuse to get together with friends before parting ways. We had one last celebration dinner at Cheesecake Factory, it was craziness.
Graduation Banquet—UCLA hosted a banquet for all of the grads at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades. It was a really fun night but the reality of moving across the country was starting to set in towards the end of the night.

The golf course is beautiful, all through dinner Morris was trying to figure out how to get on the course.
Morris receiving an award from the Orthodontic department

The lovely ladies

The whole gang
Wicked one more time—I really could see this show a million times, and I almost have, well, 5 times. Our parents loved the show as much as I do. My mom was a little disappointed to learn that Hollywood is not as glamorous as it looks on TV—sorry Mom.

Whew we did it. Now I can return to the blog world and not feel guilty looking at others peoples blogs that are updated. Goodbye LA, we miss you.

Virginia or Bust

After several long days of too much driving we finally reached Virginia. I will update on our last month in LA soon.

I feel like I have had to remind myself to do a lot more of this than normal lately. I have been neglecting many things in my life lately including this blog. Work has officially taken over my life. After spending several weeks training someone to take over my job so I could go part time and eventually quit before moving to Virginia she decided to quit and make my life pretty miserable until we go. It gets worse but I need to stop before the tears start again.

P.S. Thank you to my sweet husband, Morris, who is keeping life together at the Poole house.

Its Official!

We got the official word in the mail yesterday--He passed!

Yep, this guy is now Dr.Poole. Well, I guess he still has to graduate but at least he has a license now to be a Dentist. We went to Fatburger to celebrate the very important piece of mail. It was good. Morris always treats himself to a Fatburger at the end of finals week and since there won't be anymore of those we thought this was a worthy occasion. Congratulations, Dr. Poole!

Day with Mom

Last week my mom was in town for a convention so Morris and I snuck down to Anaheim to spend the day with her at Disneyland. We had a great afternoon at California Adventures taking my Mom on all of our favorite rides. We took a break from the hot sun and saw the Aladdin show and it was just as good as it was the first time--the genie is hilarious! Thanks for coming to town Mom, it was so fun to see you.

For The Grads

I can't believe it already came and went. Several months ago we began planning a cruise with several of Morris's classmates to celebrate their upcoming graduation. We have had so much fun together during dental school and wanted to take a little vacation together before we all go our separate ways.

We boarded the ship in Los Angeles and headed south to San Diego. We got off the ship early in the morning and took the ferry over to Coronado Island. We rented some bicycles and saw the best of the island. Our first stop was Hotel Del Coronado, a beautiful historic hotel. Spending time at this hotel made me really sad we didn't spend a weekend there like we planned last year.

Group shot near the hotel after a game of ultimate frisbee on the beach.
A view of Coronado Bridge from a pit stop.

We had a great time that evening getting all dressed up and spending a night on the town--or ship.
Morris was so excited for the cruise he forgot to include something in his suitcase--a dress shirt.
A good look, don't you think? This was the best shirt we could come up with. Luckily Sean forgot one as well so they went tie less to the "formal" dinner.

We spent the next day on Catalina Island. Morris and I had been to Catalina once before and we were excited to spend some more time there.

A photo on the small boat to Catalina with the big boat in the back ground.

Most of our time spent on Catalina relaxing and playing cards near the beach. It was nice to spend the day on ground that was not moving.

Last stop--Ensenada,Mexico. While in Ensenada we visited La Bufadora--an underwater cave blowhole thing. Morris was more excited about finding some Mexican Tacos and I was searching for some Manzana Lift--a really yummy apple soda. We both walked away satisfied with our visit to Mexico.

Just above La Bufadora. The tide was not very high so there was not much of a water show while we were there.
The ladies checking out the beaches of Mexico--I think California has them beat as far as beaches go.
This was our last view of Mexico. We boarded the ship to catch some rays and head back to Los Angeles.

We had such a great time on the cruise and look forward to many more cruises and vacations together and with those who could not make it this year.

Our Young Family "sad face photo" at the end of our vacation. Until 2011.

Beach Date

The weather has been so beautiful in LA. The sun was shining yesterday and I was out of work early so Morris and I decided to spend the afternoon at the beach. Morris is on Spring Break right now but you would never know it with how much time he has been spending at school getting ready for the WREB. We are going to miss being a few miles from the beach and spending our free time this way.

For the Last Time

Morris can no longer give me the excuse "No we can't have any fun, I have to study for finals". Yesterday Morris took his last final ever. Next quarter he will finish up his requirements in the clinic and then it is graduation day (June 1)! And the best part of this story is that he won't have any tests or finals in his residency program either. He is not totally stress free yet, he has the WREB (the REALLY REALLY big exam that decides if he gets to be a dentist or not) in about a week. Good Luck on the WREB Morris and our other fellow dental friends!

Newest Allen

On Sunday, grandchild #18 on the Allen side came home from the hospital. My brother Greg and his wife Tieryn adopted this sweet angel. This little boy finding his way home to this family is a such a blessing and a display of God's love for each of his children. I love you Tyler and I can't wait to hold you and play with you.

I'd Rather be in Hawaii

5 days was not nearly long enough. Last week Morris and I decided to take advantage of some free flights and a condo in Waikiki and take a last minute vacation to Hawaii. We booked our tickets on Saturday and by Wednesday we were sun bathing in Oahu. We met up with two of Morris's sisters and their husbands our second day there and had the best vacation.

Our second day on the island we explored the North Shore and the beautiful beaches. The waves were huge and incredible to watch. Morris and Lance got taken out a few times while they were body surfing at Waimea Bay.

On the way home we stopped for lunch in the cutest little surf town called Haleiwa. After lunch we stopped at a local favorite--Matsumotos, for the best Hawaiian shaved ice. This is my kind of treat, shaved ice with ice cream in the bottom--there really is nothing better.
The next day we got up early to hike Diamond Head. The trail takes you through the inside of the extinct volcanic crater. When you reach the top of the crater there is a beautiful view of the island and the Pacific Ocean. Behind us is Waikiki and downtown Honolulu.
Morris decided he would braves the waves again but this time with a boogie board in hand. We spent the afternoon at Lanikai beach. Morris even convinced me to take a turn on the boogie board.
I caught a few waves and then went back to my book on the sand. This is how the ladies spent our time in the sun.
Then it was my BIRTHDAY--the big 26! We celebrated over dinner at Dukes. The restaurant is right on the beach with beautiful views of the sunset. Jason and Lance even arranged for a birthday song and a huge piece of Hula Pie. It was delicious!
We had one rainy day during our vacation so we decided to spend the day visiting Pearl Harbor. There is a very nice, peaceful spirit at the USS Arizona Memorial. It was great to visit and remember this day in American history.

The rain cleared up for a few hours so we took advantage of the rays and spent some time on the beaches of Ko Olina at the JW Marriott. This was my favorite part of the island, it was beautiful and the beaches were very calm and very few people.
Just before we were heading home for the day the rains picked up again and we watched the storm clouds move in. We stopped for a few shots with the waves, Mindy and Lance almost got washed away. Just as we were finishing up our photos a huge wave crashed onto the shore and we all got drenched including the cameras we were all holding.
Mindy and Melanie spent the day at the JW spa while the rest of us hiked through a beautiful rain forest to Moana Falls just a few minutes north of downtown Honolulu.
Our last night in Hawaii we went to dinner at the Kahala Hotel. The grounds of the hotel were beautiful and the dinner was delicious. Before our dinner arrived we took advantage of the photo op. I thought this photo of Melanie and Jason turned out best.

This was just a few hours before getting on the plane. We are smiling but I was very sad to go back to real life so soon.
Thank you Rices and Ponds for letting us tag along on your vacation, we had a wonderful time with you. We will be sure to invite ourselves on your next vacation as well--he he.