Back to Blogging

So, If I have anybody left who still checks to see if I am blogging, I am back! I decided to take the summer off. I have not been busy every single second and could have found the time to blog, but just didn't feel like it. I was having such a great time just enjoying life. Something about sitting down at the computer almost every night to journal my day, sort of felt like homework to me! However, I started this blog to be a memory book of sorts for our family and my kids to have one day. SO I find that I NEED to get back to blogging.

So what did we do all summer?? As for our family, we didn't do the vacation thing this year. Instead, Charlie's family came out to visit us for the 4th of July week. We had a wonderful time visiting, eating, playing games, going to the beach, sight-seeing, etc...Here are some pics from the week.

Lobster Dinner rooftop

The McDonald Family in Palos Verdes

4th of July

Sarah was busy doing camps and Irish dance competitions. Sarah started her camps with a dance (all-in-one) camp. It was basically hip-hop, jazz, yoga, musical theater, cheerleading, and music everyday. She then did a couple of weeks of beach camp, an Irish dance camp, and soccer camp. Amidst all that, she continued to do her art classes, ice skating classes, and upped her Irish dance classes to 2 days a week. She also competed in 3 competitions this summer and did well in all of them. So a lazy summer she did not have, but a fun one for sure.

Sarah's 1st Feis

2nd Feis medals

Soccer Camp

Her team (U.S.A.) won the mock tournament

Lauren continued to do gymnastics and asked me weekly when she would start ballet up again. She is excited for next week! She spent most of her days at the summer camp at her daycare, however, we did pull her out some to do some fun activities. She had some play dates with friends, we went to the Aquarium of the Pacific and the Natural History Museum.

Ready for Pirate Fest at the Aquarium

Natural History Museum

Charlie has been a busy, busy worker bee. He has worked 2 bike races (Tour of France and Tour of Colorado) and has been hard at work prepping for his new gig as the producer of the weekly college football game on FX. This is the FOX network's 1st year of doing college football and Charlie was picked to be the producer. It is sort of a big deal and a big promotion for him. It has been a lot of hard work, but it has taken him all over the country for press and media days, he has had some fancy dinners out (which is the part I am jealous of), and has been on the phone or computer about 99% of the summer. A restful summer at the beach he did not have, but he loves what he does.

I have been busy carting kids around to play dates, camps and competitions, as you can imagine. On July 22nd, I became the primary care giver extraordinaire to our dog Peaches. She decided to jump off our tall bed and dislocated her hip and had to have emergency surgery to keep it back in place. I do love my sweet old dog to death, but a good patient she is not. She is supposed to rest and recuperate and she has done everything in her power to be nothing put active and disobedient. We are in the last 2 weeks of this healing period where I have to carry her up and down the stairs (we live in a 3 story house) and I am not allowed to let her jump on anything. (Mind you her favorite place to be is on the couch). I will be so glad when she is back to "normal".... And somewhere between being mom and dog nurse, I have been working at my new business of being a Stella & Dot Stylist. I LOVE this job and have had great success my first 3 months in business. Every month has been better than the one before. If you are not familiar with this product, you need to go check it out and fall in love with it like I did!

www.stelladot.com/tamaramcdonald

Poor Peaches

So there is our summer, busy, but fun! The fall looks to be even busier and even more fun. I love that we decided to move to Hermosa Beach. I think it is suiting us well.

I will be back to blogging more frequently now, in fact, I will post tomorrow about 1st Day of School and next week about our girls weekend to San Diego for Labor Day.

Stella and Dot: I'm a Stylist Now!

I first heard about Stella and Dot in August of last year. A friend had invited me to a trunk show, and although I could not attend, I looked at everything online and just loved it! During this time we were planning our out of state move and in the back of my mind I thought I might like to try this once we got settled. In May I hosted a trunk show for a stylist I met out here and it was a great success. My party grossed over $1000, which meant I got tons of free jewelry for hosting the party (about $430 worth, along with 4- 1/2 priced items), so I was hooked! It is now June, we just closed on our house in CA, we are settled, and I am ready to take on a new opportunity. That is how I look at this.

An opportunity to get lots of great jewelry to wear.
An opportunity to do something that makes me happy and gives me an outlet from being just mom.
An opportunity to meet lots of new people and reconnect with my friends I had out here from before.
An opportunity to make a little money to spend on my cute kids.
An opportunity to run that business I have always wanted to, but was too afraid to take the leap!

I am in the beginning phases of my business. I am looking to book trunk shows for anyone interested in getting FREE jewelry and I will have my launch party once the new Fall line comes out later this summer!

To me the jewelry and the company is so much more than any at-home party product I have seen before. (Being from TX, I have been to my fair share of at-home parties. It is what we do.) This stuff is so cute, so versatile, so well made, and so much fun! If you aren't familiar with Stella & Dot, please check out my button to the side. It is a link to my website. You can buy jewelry at any time. You are not bound to just attending a show. I know a lot of you that read do not live near me anymore, so just know you can still support me and enjoy the jewelry at anytime! I know you will love it as much as I do!

Here are some photos from my 1st trunk show that I hosted in May
Cinco de Mayo!!

Thoughts on Normandy

This Memorial Day I am thinking about our trip last June to Normandy. I am jumping ahead a little bit in my journal-ing of our vacation to bring you some photos of this spectacular place.

Never have I been so moved and humbled by a location before. The sites we visited were truly awe inspiring. To see first hand those beaches in which our brave soldiers fought so gallantly was amazing and eerie. To think how horrible those landings were and to see how far and long the beaches were at low tide and then the cliffs they had to climb once they reached the shore was unbelievable. World War II movies come close to capturing the horror, but it is all too much to take in when standing there thinking of what it must have been like. Rows and rows of brave dead men and you can't help but be moved and feel patriotic. I found this section of France particularly to be very welcoming to Americans. The French get a bad rep in the eyes of many Americans, but those in this region remember well, first hand or through stories, what the Americans did for them. There are just as many American flags flying in this region as French. I highly recommend any American tourist to travel to this location and spend a few days, if not a week or so, seeing all the sights. A special place to remember this Memorial Day weekend.

Iron Mike - a memorial just outside of St. Mere-Eglise

This is just one of the many bridges that our troops fought to keep control of. Amazing how small it is and yet how important. The paratroopers (from the story Band of Brothers) were the ones to land here.

The church in St. Mere-Eglise. If you look closely you can see the fake para-trooper hanging from the troop. This is a memorial to a solider for whom this actually happened to. He hung up there while fighting commenced all around him. After 2 hours he was cut down by the Germans and taken prisoner. He was later released to the Americans. You can read the story HERE.

Stained glass windows in the church with para-troopers surrounding the Virgin Mary.

The girls at the Airborne Museum in St. Mere-Elgise

The writing on the wall at the American cemetery in Normandy. Such powerful words.

This place was sad, beautiful, moving, haunting, and all around amazing. This was the American cemetery in Normandy. Just out past the graves you see the beaches of Omaha Beach. Go HERE to read more about this awe-inspiring place.

The memorial at Omaha Beach.

We went to go walk the beach and were greeted by hundreds of these little jellies. IF the war wasn't bad enough, to be greeted by a beach full of these babies would have just added to the struggle of the day.

Point du Hoc
This location lends itself to another story of valor and bravery. Read about it HERE.

Entrance to one of the artillery bunkers

Us next to one of the bomb craters.

Utah Beach in the morning low tide. Look how far it is to the water.

Utah Beach at sunset. Look how much farther still to the water... So scary to think about all those brave men so exposed for so long when getting off those boats. How brave they must have been.

I have many more pictures from this area. This was just the tip of the iceberg. I was never a big World War II buff and certainly didn't know (and still don't know) all the stories, but there is so much to learn here about some many brave men. You can just be driving down the side of the road and see a monument to a hero that died doing something that helped his battalion or group get to where they needed to be. We hear so many times about specific main battles and main heroes, that we forget all the ones that go un-mentioned. This place memorializes them all. Well all they know about. Truly a patriotic place and one we as Americans can be very proud of.

Our house on Whittier Lane

Tomorrow, May 27th, we close on our house on Whittier Lane. In many ways I am excited because in this market I was worried it would take forever and a day for it to sell, and I am ready to be a permanent CA resident. On the other hand, it was a great house and I will miss it. Going through all my photos from the past 6 years, I admit I am sitting here tearing up writing this post. We have had a great 6 years there. Aside from the loss of some loved ones that took place during those 6 years, it was a wonderful, happy, perfect time in our lives.


We moved into the house on Whittier Lane in April of 2005. We built and designed this house from the ground up. We chose the lot and everything in between. Right down to the knobs on every drawer. It was our baby.

Our 1st Christmas in the house.

Speaking of babies, when we moved in Sarah had just turned 15 months. We loved raising her in this beautiful home with a lovely nursery and lots of room for her to crawl around in (although we had her caged in most of the time!). It is also the home we brought Lauren home to from the hospital in 2007.

The girls have enjoyed so many happy times in this house.
From birthday parties...

(Yes, we had a pinata in the foyer)

Halloween costume pictures in the front yard...

to camping in the back yard...

to helping me in the kitchen....

random silliness....

everyday life.....

to cheering on our Horned Frogs to a Rose Bowl victory!

Our house was so beautiful anytime of year. My favorite was spring because that as when everything was in bloom. Including my beloved hydrangeas.

If I could have brought them with me I would have. I will have them growing here in no time though. The climate here actually suits them better!

It was also gorgeous in the winter when we had our snows. I will NEVER forget the magical Christmas Eve in 2009 when it snowed all day. The warmth and love and coziness I felt that day was palpable and unforgettable.

I also will never forget the day it snowed 13 inches and we were caught in a full on snowpocalypse.

We had many great times at our house celebrating Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, 4th of July pool parties, my 30th birthday and my husband's 40th birthday. We also had a bridal shower there, many many play dates, and watched countless Cowboy losses throughout the years.
My family gatherings were my favorite and that is the number one thing we miss most about moving.

We also miss having our friends over....

and their kids.

I will always have a special place in my heart for our house on Whittier Lane. What happy, happy times we had there. In some ways I think how could I ever move from OUR home where we made so many memories....but I have to always remember that home is the family and not just the shell of a house. We will have a happy home and create happy memories where ever we are.

And what a beautiful place we find ourselves in now to start that next chapter!