A Special Day in the Life of Lorinda

On May 17, 2009 I was baptized. This was one of the greatest decisions I have ever made. I am growing as a Christian and loving every minute of it. I may not understand so much at the infant stage I am in, but I am learning more each and every day.


That's not to say that I'm still not Lorinda. Do you know what I mean? I'm still the same silly person you know, but I am trying to live my life to a higher standard now. I am accountable for each and every thing I do and say. I still slip up plenty, but with practice I will do better as each day goes by.


Yep, thats me in that picture below, and I am thrilled to say I am Proud to be a Christian!

Our First Anniversary - May 17, 2009

Happy Anniversary to Us!! Yep, we made it to the one year mark! We attended church and worked our way to the Olive Garden for lunch. That particular place has lots of memories for the both of us. We had dinner there the night Tim proposed. It has been a wonderful year , especially with both of us deciding to take an active life in church. We have made such great friends and learned so much.

This past anniversary year, we went on a fabulous honeymoon to St. Augustine, FL, we both were laid off our jobs, dealt with months of unemployment, found new jobs, gained a new grandson, got in a car accident, began attending church, had speeding tickets (naughty!), drove several trips to Tallahassee and Lake City to retrieve/return Tim's kids, joined a Life Group, had a loss of a family member, and turned 1 year older.

It's been grand and I hope for many many more years of excitment!!

Silly Brayden

Brayden comes over and stays with us almost every weekend. He's so fun to be around, I'm going to miss him so much when he moves to Northern California. This is a video I took of him being silly. May 23, 2009

Tom Menasco - September 3, 1927 - April 14, 2009

A tribute to my father, Thomas M. Menasco. My dad was the most easy going person I have ever met. He gave our family a great life, took us on fabulous travel trips, and I always felt such security growing up.

He was a captain at the Anaheim Fire Department, and proudly served the city for 27 years. He also owned and operated a tour company, Tortuga Express.

I had the pleasure of working for him for 12 years. We had a lot of great times! One thing that dad and I looked forward to each year was the Fire & Police Winter Olympics trip. We always travelled with the group on that one and had a ball. The business started out taking travellers on trips to Matzatlan, Mexico. It grew to be the number 1 ski tour operator in the USA to Western Canada. My dad could sell a haircut to a bald man!

My dad loved traveling to Hawaii. Below in the top left is a pic of him relaxing, which really he didn't do all that much when he went to the islands. He liked to get out and do things, meet people. As you see there are a few photos of my parents throughout the years. The bottom right is a pic from 1980, a white water river rafting trip they went on.

My dad was a wonderful Grandfather. I was a single parent and my kids looked up to my dad as a father figure and a positive male role model. Below are a few pics with my kids at the Orange County Fair, Bret crawling up in a Fire Engine for the first time, and some time at Irvine Park with the animals. Memories I know Bret & Taryn will cherish forever.

The thing I am thankful for most in these recent years, is that my dad got to walk me down the aisle when I was married May 17, 2008. He and my mom were able to travel to Florida, see where I lived, and visit the gorgeous area and beach. I am so blessed he was there to give me away, and be with me on my wedding day.

In closing, I want to wish my dad a Happy Father's Day, because he is truely with Our Father and I can take comfort in that. I miss you dad, you will never be forgotten.

**A note to all - this is the first time I've used a program to make collages, they came out ok but I've had a heck of a time inserting them into this blog post. So please just take it as it is, its the best I could do - hee hee :)

Brayden's Monster Truck 3rd Birthday Bash

So since Brayden's birthday was Feb 17, and Logan was born on Feb 11, Bray's birthday kinda got pushed to the side. Not like he would notice at his age but still we wanted to celebrate at some point. Taryn decided to wait to the end of March when the weather was nicer so she could do a bounce house and invite some new classmates as well. Initially it was set for March 28th.

Well...it poured for 4 days and March 28 being the 4th day! It was a mess around here, rivers overflowed, thunder, lightning, and non-stop rain. We made the decision on Friday to alert everyone we would have it on Sunday, March 29 instead. All the weather forcasts were for sunny skies so we chanced it. Turned out to be a gorgeous day! Sunshine, perfect temp. Not to hot, not to cool. We had it in my backyard since Taryn's is pretty much a slope with no fence.

Here Dan and Tim are blowing up the huge bounce house. It took only a few minutes for this thing to blow up and it ended up being taller than the house!

Brayden was just in awe at this thing growing in his Grandmommy and Grandpa Tim's backyard!

It turned out to be such a nice day, Bray changed into shorts and climbed in with his buddies to be a little jumping bean.

The men, have you ever noticed how they always stand around the BBQ? Tim BBQ'd Hot Dogs for everyone.

The cake was awesome! It really was as good as it looked, delicious choclate...MMMM!

Bray in the bounce house with his buddies...he probably jumped for 3 hours. He had the greatest time! This was such a perfect thing for him. Autistic kids have sensory problems and they love movement. He loves to jump and during therapy he jumps on a small trampoline.

March Birthday's

We have several birthday's in March. Katie, Tim, Taryn and my Mom. We celebrated Tim's, March 8 and Katie's, March 3 on the morning of March 7th. Taryn, March 19, celebrated with her husband, and Mom, March 20, well she is in California so we didn't get to do much with her but we did send her a super cool gardening windchime!

Katie turned 11. Here she is with another Webkins. She has quite the collection going!

She got a few other cool things - as you can see she loves "Camp Rock" as much as the other almost tweens.

This is Tim's "cake". Instead of a traditional cake, we had a yummy raspberry danish at breakfast.

Ok so here is Tim being as silly as possible and blowing out the candles on his birthday danish. Now I cannot help pointing out that delicious bacon on the table. Mmmmm...B A C O N !!

Brayden Goes To School

Well I have been out of the loop for a while and have many blogs to catch up on. My computer was on the fritz so lets just see if memory of the last couple of months serves.

Brayden started school in the middle of February. It is a Pre-KD class which is for special needs children. We were excited for him, but also apprehensive. Mom got him all ready for school and both Grandmommy and Grandpa Tim were there for the send off.

So here he is cheesing for the camera...he has no idea what is in store for him.

A little giggle time with Grandpa Tim

Outside to wait for the bus with his backpack on. Now he really didn't like to put that on but we snapped a pic before he wigged out. Now he LOVES his backpack and in the morning mom gets him dressed and he runs to get his backpack and puts it on cause he knows he's goin' to school!

Mom handing Bray to the bus aide. He takes the bus every day right from his driveway. There is a driver and an aide. He has a booster seat and gets strapped in. This looks like torture but actually he ended up not crying a bit after she put him in his seat and he just looked all around out his window. He now LOVES his bus rides!

He looks so sad :( Mom and Grandmommy cried when that bus left. But all in all it is such a great experience for Brayden and he's learning so much. Now taking him out to the bus is like old news. He hops right on and is ready to go :)

Now this is his daily ritual...waiting for his bus, with backpack on and no struggles.

They took school pictures of the kids in March. As far as we know, no one was notified, they just came home in Brayden's backpack with request for payment. Anyhow, since they were the first ever she bought them. I have no idea how they got him to sit still and do whatever kind of smile that is...or get him to sit still period!