Try the Korean BBQ!

Maroo Korean BBQ and Sushi

These photos are not taken at Maroo's, but they give you an idea of the style!


Have you ever been to a restaurant and wanted to blog about it? It would be weird if you did. However, I just have to tell you about a new place to try. If you happen to be in Northridge, California then you are especially in luck!

Our coolest-friends-ever, Audrey and Kevin, took us on quite an adventure last night at Maroo's Korean BBQ. Thankfully, both Audrey and Kevin were accomplished patrons of this tricky form of eating. It wasn't really tricky--but what do you do when you are seated at a table with it's own barbeque pit in the middle of the table?

I like fun food! This kind of dining was very fun, very social, as well as delicious! We were all happy with our entree choices of the Marinated Beef, Sliced Sirloin, Shrimps and Mushrooms and the Spicy Pork. For you veggie lovers, you would have been happy with the little salads that arrived first. If you cleaned out your Barbie-sized portion of salad, the waiter would refill.

It was a definite perk that Audrey and Kevin were neighbor-friends of the owners. The little Korean mother-in-law assembled a gorgeous plate of what we guessed was California rolls, topped with baby shrimp and drizzled with a sweet marinade. Yummy!

I'm an aide...

For those who don't know where I'm at between the hours of 11:30 - 2:35 each day, I'm at school. At an elementary school in a Special Day Class for autistic kids K-2. I've been with this job since Nov. 07.

I admit, I didn't seek a job with special needs kids because I love working with them. I needed a job to supplement income since the sticker shock of 2 sets of braces last summer in our home.

Since I started with these little ones, I now have to say, "Why didn't anyone tell me sooner that I have been missing out on a job with a perfect fit for me?"

I could have made a lot of money being an aide for such a long time. Or maybe have some awesome health benefits that we seem to lack as James is considered a small-business owner.

Now I won't go on and on here about my daily happenings at school. I actually have visions of a very fun blog-read if I collaborated all of my other aides' and the teachers' experiences. You would have to laugh at what we deal with! I have flash-backs to the days I used to watch Cops late at night. The video camera was VERY telling! (...what if a video camera person were to follow me and the other aides around the campus?)

Besides, I signed a confidentiality contract. Bummer.

I never knew Autism had an awareness month til now. I just thought I'd do my part. If you want to know more from a mother's point of view, go here. Our little Marshall is a wonderful ambassador for his ASD friends. Thanks for telling it like it is, Aprilyn!
Lastly, one of the first things I remember learning about autism is Dustin Hoffman's character in Rainman. I thought then, as I do now, that these 'kids' are just Super Heroes. They appear a little 'different' from the outside....but watch out, because suddenly the kindergarten child will spell humongous words--correctly. Or the 2nd grader will recite all the 50 states in alphabetical order. Or the 1st grader will give you all 12 months of the year...in French and then Spanish. The list goes on...

Its the real deal, I'm telling you!!

I don't blame some of you for not believing those prior photos of my sister and her loves, Johnny and Orlando. I should have warned you beforehand.

I didn't believe them myself and actually threw the word Photoshopped at her.

That truly is the adorable Orlando. He made a wonderful elf in Lord of the Rings.

It was her fault for not telling me she was hanging out in the Bahamas-- at the same hotel, at the same time, --as the cast of Pirates of the Caribbean (II and III) during filming. Her hubby was having some sort of "business retreat", and my sister had a chance encounter with those cuties. I assure you, only after speaking with my brother-in-law who never lies, I became a believer!

That's Johnny Depp. He wears more make-up than my sister. I don't mind that.

These are the actual photos my sister originally sent me--ever so nonchalantly, I must say! Why she didn't take out a full page add in the Daily Herald (my hometown paper) to announce her photo-op, I'll never know.

Johnny and My Brother-In-Law-Who-Never-Lies sharing a Home-boy handshake.
They must be best friends, I guess.

How was the luncheon?

I went to the CUW Luncheon yesterday. I learned a lot of things. None of which had anything to do with pearl vending.


I was to meet a young lady whom Wendy sent from Utah who had brought a lot of product. Wow! Raimana delivered! By the way, Raimana is just so beautiful. I don't need to mention among some of her former professions that she was a Bridal Gown Model. But I just did. Suits her nicely! Tahitian girls.... I want to be Tahitian in my next life.

The CUW ladies were wonderful. I mean that not a one of them was Hoity-Toity. In all fairness, it should be stated, by me, that the $50 plate of food was actually a fundraiser. All proceeds are donated to Ettie Lee Youth and Family Services. It doesn't get nicer than that.

The funniest thing about the beautiful California Utah Women is that our good friend, Mama Jo was there with two other of the nicest ladies I know! I think she accepted my apology for my previous blog.

Lastly, I learned that I don't want to be one of the vendors at the next Luncheon; I want to browse the Boutique. The Boutique was so much fun! It was as if my own sister had contacted all the vendors herself. My sister lets me tag along with her to shop Salt Lake City and Utah Valley! My sister has the best taste.This is my sister and her boyfriend, Johnny.
I started liking my sister a lot more when I saw this photo.

....and this photo.....

If you haven't heard of the CUW Luncheon, you may just want to buy your Fall tickets and join the many California Utah Women to see what all the Hub-Bub is about.

My Saturday show

I have always been a people-watcher. I honestly use my ADD skills to their fullest when I am able to just sit in a very busy airport or mall or PTA meeting with nothing to do but observe others.



Tomorrow, I will get to do a bit of that. Ideally, I will be super-duper busy selling Wendy's Pearls and stuff, but hopefully I can people-watch. I'm especially interested in this grouping of people because the event is a luncheon. A $50 a plate luncheon. I don't think I've ever put $50 of food on my plate, so I want to see what those people are like. I'll bet they dress better than me, walk more elegantly than me, and...the best part is that they will probably have "surgical enhancements" that will make me go, "Hmmmmm." I'm showing how shallow I am, aren't I?


I'm kind of joking, because after all, these are California Utah Women. They are California women celebrating their Utah heritage. That's me!! These are MY people!!

Oh wait. I just told James the name of the organization. He said I don't qualify as a California woman. He said I have never embraced California as my home. ((bites lip)) Oh well. I hope these lovely ladies aren't too hoity-toity to pass up charitable pearls.

Even if I am too busy selling, I will be at the Happiest Place on Earth. Next door. At the hotel.

Spring Break--Final Day 6

To those of you who have read our posts and even commented, a hearty "Thank you."

To my parents whom James sat patiently with this last weekend to teach
Blogging Presets 101.. (just 3 clicks folks...no typing involved..)

..I love you even though you haven't turned on your computer since we were in your home (700 miles away) and you aren't reading this.

To catch the rest of us up...Yosemite was fascinating--even if seen primarily from the confines of our Denali. We apparently saved up enough energy to attack the wilds of Sequoia National Park. We were willing to walk throughout the highlands and lowlands that next day. But, alas, we could not do it without heavy snow gear on our bodies. At best, we had heavy jackets.

Thank you Mr. Park Ranger for clearing the snow for us.
The 300 feet to the museum would have been unbearable.

We remained the responsible family and only cautiously ventured forth on trails freshly 'mowed' with a Snow-Blower. That pretty much left us to the walk from the parking lot to the doors of another Visitor's Center.

At the bottom of the mountain---clear roads so far...>

...what's hiding in those misty clouds?.......>
Well...now WE are hidden in the snow clouds. You can't see the bottom of the mountain .

Only 4-wheeled vehicles were allowed up the mountain that day. Some sportier little cars would be seen with chains on their wheels. I bet that was the only time some of those sun-tanned tourists would ever have to touch a chain around their tires.

James is sporting his souvenir from Yosemite. Its a water bottle holder.
Little kids won't be stealing that, I think.

Hoods are a fashion statement. I had to document that.

The Four Guardsmen. And a cheering squad.

Action-packed view of a Giant Sequoia at the Giant Forest Museum.

That's all we have. I could make an appointment for you to see the other 6 gigabytes of photos and video if you want........

Spring Break--Day 5

Yosemite National Park

Just the title conjures up feelings of magnificence to me. Yosemite is just MORE of everything that I grew up with in the Rockies. The big rocks are bigger. The big trees are bigger. You get the drift.

Since we arrived at our hotel in the dark, I was very excited to peek outside as soon as I could wipe the crusties from my eyes that morning. Yep...the view was MORE than I expected. Being springtime, the new flowers were bursting out all over the place. I'm use to a placid green in the hills around our house. Sadly, we were lacking in the Eagerness Department to scale any mountains or hike historic trails. Yep....we were doing the Car Tour. I am embarrassed to admit that we drove all this way to sit on our tushies; but there you have it. We took advantage of the Yosemite Visitors Center. You get more bang for your buck that way. We figured it was a Reader's Digest version of the first national park (you think it is Yellowstone? Wikipedia begs to differ. And as we all know, Wikipedia is the gospel truth).

Photographic evidence that our pilot was out of the car in Yosemite.
North America's tallest waterfall.
Yosemite Falls.

Gift shops are also nice when doing the Car Tour. You buy souvenirs to prove you got out of the car. Please note the cute fleece jacket Brielle is modeling from Monterey Bay. She wore the souvenir to school her first day back and lost it 3 hours later. Well....LOST is a strong word.....I dragged her to the Lost & Found after school and it never showed up. Some child who never stepped a foot in Monterey is now wearing ...............rant............rant.........
Finally out of our cozy car, we avoided the foreign-speaking tourists. We hoped they couldn't smell the laziness emanating from us. These adventurous people had obviously read and studied and planned and traveled across the world to stand next to where we were standing. The Green family was just a disgrace, and we knew when to bow out. We also knew when to snap photos. We aren't any good at photo snapping, but we do our best.

Monica and Amanda praying that they don't
have to look at the Big Tree Rings 15 feet away....>

but this random man thinks they are as fascinating as I do!! This tree is almost 2,000 years old. Wow dee dow..

When you give a bored child in the back seat a bundle of Stickerpalooza stickers you are bound to get something like this...

A short video of a Wiwok Village. There was an engaging tour going on nearby....but our family preferred reading the tiny plaques next to the structures...

And finally, here we rested from a restful day. Monica loves taking pictures of sunrises and sunsets. She has a good eye for it, really. Downtown Visalia (a little drive from Sequoia National Park) was a bit of a challenge when the sunset called to Monica.

She titled this, "Ghetto Sunset".

What you don't see is the brewery/pub next to the fabric store. I'm guessing that Visalia's louder, drunken nightlife enjoy this pub a lot.

Spring Break--Day 4

How is it possible for a fresh-faced, 29 year woman (cough cough) to start the day like this....

and end up like this?*

Well---it kinda goes like this.

We woke up so happily in our gorgeous hotel and had a whoppin' good breakfast (hence the cheery, photo shopped face above). We parked our car at the ferry landing and took the ferry across the bay to SF. The day was sunny, despite warnings of oncoming rain. We caught a cable car around SF and ended up at Ghirardelli Square. Too tired to venture further on foot, we took a different kind of street car to Fisherman's Wharf for lunch.

The whole, "Too Tired to Venture On Foot" kind of became the way of life for the next 24 hours---as you will find out. Being scared that the darkening clouds would actually rain, we returned to the ferry, and then our car. We said goodbye to San Francisco and turned on the navigation system to "fastest route" to Yosemite. Well, people, the traffic was bad. Good thing we had the DVD player, or there would have been blood shed in the back seats of the Denali.

Brielle standing guard at the ferry.
The pesky little sister routine only gets you kicked out of the Cool Girls Club.

You only get his view of San Francisco from the luxury of a ferry!!

Its pretty empowering to be in the center of the city's cable car pully system.
You see this at the Cable Car Museum.

After a somewhat eye-opening experience hanging onto the sides of a cable car, we arrived at Ghirardelli Square. The looming clouds only accentuated the sad construction of the landmark.

See....I'm not kidding! Even the black tarps were a sign of a funeral......

I admit, we were getting pretty exhausted by now. What do you expect of a family that is too attached to their computers and TVs and couches? It was time to sit in the car for a while. Our ride to Yosemite was just the ticket. Did I mention the traffic out of town? We finally blazed a trail through...well, we don't really know where. The road maps would have been more, well, straight. Our navigation system in the car was taking us through Farmland, USA. Even in the dusk, we ooh-ed and aah-ed at the beautiful, simple country. Monica found out the hard way that a belly full of Jelly Bellys would not sit well with switch-back roads climbing up to Yosemite. We can laugh now...but we just wanted to get to our hotel, and that sick girl in back got annoying. Just kidding---ill 15 year olds are easier to deal with. We took away the Jelly Bellys and told her to drink water. She was cool with that.

The Yosemite View Lodge. Pretty sweet location, right?

Okay folks, we have 1 1/2 days left of this journey. If you want to see some WOW-DEE-DOW-DOW sights, stay tuned for tomorrow's post. We stood among the giants....and got our toes got cold and wet.

*And to my siblings-- a warning---I'm totally copyrighting this photo, so you can't take it and blackmail me later. I'm submitting it to all the CSI shows out there as my audition photo. I'm quite sure I'd rock at being a corpse.

Spring Break -- Day 3

Well...my little chapter book of a Spring Break went on hold due to another teensy road trip. My family and I went to Utah for our church's General Conference in Salt Lake City. It was a wonderful experience for James, Me, Monica and Amanda. Jenna and Brielle stayed behind at their Aunt Annie's house. But I will have to write about that later. For now, I get to reminisce about the tastiest day of our Spring Break Trip!!

We got up early in the morning to get to the Jelly Belly factory in Fairfield, just 40 minutes north of SF. We hoped to get in the 1st tour at 9:15 am. It was a good thing, because the next groups of tourists were more crowded. I like less-crowded groups. The factory was making Green Apple Jelly Bellys that day. A bonus to the tour was the Mrs. Grossman's Stickerpalooza going on in a room upstairs. Jenna, Brielle and I got plenty of stickers for a buck. Wait for tomorrow's post to see what sort of mischief a girl can get into with stickers and a long car ride.

Brielle and Jenna in the Jelly Belly Gift shop.















We drove to Berkeley to get grab some lunch at a Burger King. Let me not sugar-coat how weird Berkeley appeared to our family. You see, our family rarely sees the transient hobos in action. One guy was seriously mentally challenged while demonstrating his use of the newspaper vending racks to stash his found food. Although James forbade me to look, I looked. Our girls were curious as to why our local hobos were not as entertaining. Could it be that Berkeley people were more tolerant than our local leaders? We didn't stick around to ask.

Tour #2
James was determined to reserve a tour of a Dark Chocolate-making factory at 12:30. He kinda didn't care that Jenna wasn't old enough to take the tour. But Jenna and I showed him!! We had some delicious hot cocoa in the Scharffen Berger Cafe while waiting for the tour to finish.


Afterwards, looking for something to do, we drove to the west side of San Francisco to see the sites of Golden Gate Park. This little-known park is comparable in size to Central Park in NYC. We chose to spend our time in the Japanese Gardens and then walked over to the Botanical Gardens and Conservatory, and a very fun kids playground.

A cute note about this Conservatory and the Butterfly Gardens-- James spent time in and around San Francisco as a boy because his grandparents lived in nearby San Raphael. As a group, his family would visit GG Park, but James' father would not spend the money to enter the tempting glass-walled conservatory. That made little Jamie sad. James has finally lived the dream. I am truly happy we got to be there with him for that.

The flowery gardens outside the conservatory.

A desperate would-be escapee from the Butterfly Garden on James' backpack.

The climate inside the conservatory would be so sticky-humid and hot in one room and then very cold and humid in another. This photo kinda shows how huge some of these plants have become.
After the park, we jumped into the Denali and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge to San Raphael. We drove around his grandparents former neighborhood. Amanda got her wish of the day and we dined at Quizno's. Our hotel that night was our favorite! I recommend the Embassy Suites in Mill Valley with all my heart!
Phew!! Wasn't that awesome? Hello? ((crickets)) Oh well, we had a wonderful day. I was accused of taking a chemical substance which enhanced my happiness, but I am quite sure I was high on life instead. Spending quality time with my family is the best type of happiness there is!

Next up... finding out that the navigation system in our car is better than any road map because it doesn't care if you take the main road......