Sunday, January 12, 2014

Weekend Recap

Welcome to a recap of my lovely weekend!
It all began on Friday night when I attended the end of season cross country awards ceremony. My daughter Clara ended up with quite a few awards:
She was most proud of receiving a plaque for being "Rookie of the Year." The Varsity letter, All League star, CCS and State patches are also very cool. I think I'll get her a letterman's jacket and have her various patches sewn on. I'm not sure if all of my readers knows what a letterman's jacket is, but here's a photo of a family friend wearing one:
On Saturday morning, Clara and I got up bright and early, picked up a friend and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to visit the Guide Dogs for the Blind school in San Rafael, Ca.
Working with guide dogs is exactly the kind of job which Clara would like to have someday, so we went to check out the facility. It is an amazing place, full of the most beautiful puppies and dogs you could imagine! They have their own breeding stock and an amazing training program. We even got to see a graduation ceremony with five visually impaired people finishing their training and officially receiving their guide dogs. Clara has signed up to volunteer there this summer, and she is also considering being a "puppy raiser" next year.
Saturday night I went to a pub with some girlfriends. . . 
We had a lot of laughs playing "Cards Against Humanity," which is a card game of sorts. In each round, the "judge" plays a prompt card which contains a question or half-finished sentence. All the other players pick an answer from the cards in their hand. The answer cards are very snarky and often quite naughty. It's all good fun though!
Sunday began with a hike:
And ended with a healthy pot of soup:
Both of these because I have started a "Take Down" weight loss program at my gym.  28 days, and I'm hoping to get lighter, re-focused on eating well, and back to being able to comfortably wear all my work clothes!
A busy, but fun weekend. How was yours?

22 comments:

Irene said...

Sounds like a busy weekend. So proud of Clara. Those are some cute pups.

Lesley G said...

Well done to Clara and good luck with the Guide Dogs - such a worthy place to volunteer :)

scrappyjacky said...

Very well done to Clara....and a lovely sounding weekend.

Jane said...

you must be very proud, it will be a very rewarding job.

helena said...

sounds a wonderful weekend and congratulations to Clara

Amy said...

We have a family at work who regularly train Guide Dogs - my kids used to always want to pat them when we saw them in the supermarket!
Congratulations to Clara and good for you taking some healthy steps in 2014!

alexa said...

Well done to Clara, and a jacket to display her achievements sounds just the thing. :). Best wishes for the healthy programme - sounds very do-able...

Cheri said...

WOW! What a weekend. I knew some people who were puppy raisers. It is very hard when it is time to let them go.

Karen said...

Congrats to Clara! Letter jackets and sweaters were all the rage in the mid-west when I was growing up. Sounds like a fabulous weekend all around. Ours was lovely---two of the nicest days yet here in sunny Florida--a trip to the Everglades and more walks on the beach. It all ends today, but I hope to bottle the sunshine to take home with me. :-)

Sian said...

well done Clara! That's quite some achievement.

We know someone here who raises Guide Dogs - a brilliant thing to do.

We left TTO to the airport this weekend, so we'll be settling back into our new routine again this week

Jo Murray said...

Huge congratulations to Clara. Keep on hiking and eating healthy...you are my role model for 2014.

Sheena said...

Many congrats to Clara x
Those patches would be perfect on that jacket.

sky-blu-pink said...

Wow, what a busy weekend! A lady from our church has for many years had retired Guide Dogs as pets, mostly labradors. They are such lovely animals.

Becky said...

Looks like you had a great weekend. Good luck to Clara - a great job to get in to :)

Anonymous said...

i know several people involved in the guide dog program ... let me know if you need me to get you any info or hook you up with someone to talk about it

SUPER congrats to Clara and she SOOOOO needs a letterman jacket!!! lucky girl!!

Mariana

Nordljus said...

Those puppies are just adorable! I think that guide dogs are simply amazing, what a wonderful thing for your daughter to work with them! Your soup looks delicious! Good look with your programme. I decided that 2014 will definitely be the year I start going to the gym again.

The Mann Fam said...

Sounds like you had a full weekend. One year one of our students was a a puppie raiser. He broughtthe most docile, black lab with him and we all git to know this amazing dog.

Deb @ PaperTurtle said...

Great weekend recap, Rinda! :o) I think Clara would be fantastic at raising a guide dog! My best friend in high school raised a few through 4-H. And while it was difficult for her to give them up in the end, it was very gratifying as well. I look forward to hearing more about this endeavor for Clara!

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a great weekend. Congrats to Clara on earning all those awards. John's Lions Club here in town started up a guide dog training school so we know how much effort it takes raising and training them. Good luck on your healthy program.

Missus Wookie said...

Such a great weekend - that soup looks good. Congratulations on the awards, that programme looks like just the place for Clara too.

Melissa said...

Sounds like it was a lovely weekend. I was getting ready to head to Anaheim, so I'm just now catching up on this past week's blog reading! :>) I think a Letter Jacket is definitely in order for all those awards.

Unknown said...

Sounds like a lovely weekend :)