"I Love Rock 'n Roll"

Remember that old Joan Jett song, "I love rock 'n roll, put another dime in the jukebox baby?" Well, those of us here in SoCal didn't have to drop a dime in a jukebox today, we rocked 'n rolled for free! It's been awhile since we've had a quake here, and I guess no matter how many you've been through, they still catch you off guard and I still REALLY hate them!! Brande was in the family room playing with Riley. I was talking to them from the dining room, when all of sudden you hear this "noise" and stuff starts to rattle and it takes a second to realize, "oh crap, here we go". I think Brande and I both realized we better head for a doorway at the same time. She jumped up, grabbed Riley and we stood under an archway that divides those two rooms. As soon as we got there, one of my big vintage advertising signs flew off the kitchen fireplace. Then out of the corner of my eye I saw the water in the pool turning into mini waves. In those few seconds, so many things go through your head. Where is everyone, please let them be safe. I started to worry about Riley being afraid, but when I looked at her in Brande's arms, Riley was just laughing and laughing. For some apparent reason, maybe because she's always liked to dance, she thought the "rock 'n roll" was pretty funny!

As the shaking stopped, the ground that is, I was like everyone else, I grabbed my cell phone without realizing that everyone else was doing the same thing! Bryce, my son, had called me five minutes before the quake started telling me he was on the store roof, you know our old 1919 building, fixing something! I just kept thinking of him on top of the roof, and Katie, Darcy, and Brad inside the building. As you know, there was no cell phone reception, but when you are a little "shook up", you don't think logically, so I just kept dailing. Finally the house phone rang, and it was Katie. Everyone was fine, Bryce wasn't thrown from the roof, the store was okay, and thankfully most of us here in SoCal walked away with just some butterflies in our stomachs.

It makes you think though, about when you say good-bye to those you love in the mornings, that you never know what our days hold ahead for us. And stuff like earthquakes reminds me how grateful I am for those in my life I love so much, and to never take that for granite. And I'm also thankful my Riley can find humor and laughter in "rocking 'n rolling"!

Welcome to Our Family Loretta!

Recently, Country Roads has had the pleasure of Loretta Kilheffer joining our family! Having her own store in Brea for years, she is a welcome addition to Country Roads with her talent and experience. Not only does Loretta have great merchandise & displays, you will never see her without a smile. Over the years I've learned that even though it is important to have dealers in our store with talent and experience, more importantly, the one's that join us now are those that are nice, easy to get along with and positive.
As many of you know, Country Roads prides itself on the quality of the large selection of "stuff" and our awesome displays. We look forward to seeing you soon, and again, welcome Loretta, it's our pleasure to have you be a part of the store!

"Adrian Azul's" 1st Birthday Bash!

So, the youngest member of our Country Roads family just turned one year old! And I ask myself, "where did the time go". His mom and dad (Carol & Lazo) had a big birthday bash at the park this past Sunday. These kind of things, birthdays and all, mean so much to me. I'm not sure how many of you understand that when I talk about my "Country Roads family", I'm really serious. We are family in every sense of the word. The Jackson-Castillo family may not be about blood, but it is about "HEART". Our families have bonded and share a love that many blood related family's will never have. Celebrating Adrian Azul's birthday was just another example of our family ties. Look at the smile on Yesi's face as she holds Adrian Azul (I use both the first and middle name because there is still some "discussion" as to what first name he should use!). Sometimes you just get lucky, and are blessed to not only have those you love work with you, but be a part of your life, your family! I guess that's what Country Roads really means to me, my family! Click the link below for some more birthday pictures. Happy 1st birthday Adrian Azul! www.flickr.com/photos/susandulane/sets/72157606320128196

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Today would have been my parents 58th wedding anniversary.My mom died right after my grandbaby Riley was born in August of 2006. My dad passed away a few months later on Valentine's Day in 2007. I always believed my dad died of a broken heart. They had been married 56 years when he passed away. Like I've said before, I thought surviving 22 years of marriage before I went through a divorce was noteable, especially considering what a charming person my ex-husband was. I couldn't even imagine what it would be like be with the same person all those years, like my folks were. I wish I could have had that experience. It was a different generation back then, and maybe that's why we live in such a crazy world right now. We've lost the values of the generation that lived through the Depression. Anyway, I know my mom & dad are together and happy now. That is just the way they were. As long as they had each other, they didn't need anything else. So, "happy anniversary" mom and dad. I'm thinking of you guys tonight and hope you are up there celebrating because you are together, and all you ever needed was each other. I miss you.

Romantic Homes Magazine & New Grass!

Today turned out to be a really nice day. I was really stressed about it at first because Romantic Homes magazine was coming out to do a photo shoot of my house. I know I've got some cool stuff, but I always assume so does everyone else. My house is like the painting that is never done. I always have more than one project going on, and before one is finished, I've added another. Jacqueline and her photographer were great and made me feel so much more at ease. Jacqueline brought the flowers above over with her, and their "Vroom" book is doing another edition, where a couple of my table settings (which I think is what the book will be about, table settings)may be featured. It was fun to help gather different items with her for each of those shots. I've never, ever thought of my home as "magazine material", but their excitement over the house eased my nervousness! The issue that my house will be in won't be out until early next year, I'm looking forward to it.

I'm kind of obsessed with having a "green" front lawn. I have no idea what happened to my front lawn, but it has been dying a slow death and its been really depressing to me. I kept telling my kids, "I've never had a dead lawn in my entire life". I know that sounds trite, especially with so many important things going on in our world today. Anyway, I was concerned it would look bad with Romantic Homes coming to the house. Bryce dug out the lawn on Sunday, and Brande ordered the sod on Monday. The problem was it couldn't be delivered until today! The girls from the magazine were cool about it, and actually I had let that issue go before they arrived myself. As Bryce and Brande put my new grass in today, working side by side, it just meant a great deal to me. Something I'll always remember as I look at my new front lawn! As I said, it was just one of those days that was different from the rest, and really nice, and I am grateful to have had a day like today. . . thanks everyone!

Summer in July at Country Roads

It's summer, especially here at Country Roads. Our favorite summer songs are playing, we've all got our flip-flops on, and all the summer "color" is throughout the store! As I was walking around yesterday, while at work, I couldn't help but get a good feeling with all the colors of summer everywhere. I started taking some pictures to share. What is always exciting to me is that each and every day there is always something new at my favorite store, Country Roads! I hope you enjoy the slideshow below and stop by to see us soon. We really do believe, "nice matters"!
www.flickr.com/photos/susandulane/sets/72157606058276831

Can't Help It, I'm a Geek!

I'm being really honest here, I have a big part of me that is a geek! I don't like war, or bombings in general, or violence but I have this fasination with miltary aircraft. I live near Cal State Long Beach (no, not in a fancy neighborhood, just a regular one), so I get to see the planes fly north of me into the Long Beach airport. Thankfully they fly north of me and not over my house!!

Since Boeing is located there, I get real excited when the C-17's fly in. If I hear them when I'm in the house, I'll run out back just to watch the big dumbo's as the "waddle" through the sky. Brande has promised me that one day she will get me a ride on one. So, this morning, while I was babysitting Riley, I was reading our local paper and they said the big B-1 Bomber was going to land at Long Beach airport at 1pm. When my kids were little, my dad always threw them in his old VW bus (of course there were no seatbelts)and drove them over to the airport to watch the planes land.

So,after I read the B-1 Bomber was flying in, I loaded Riley in my car (in a saftey approved carseat this is)and off we went. I have a place, by the Auto Club, that I like to park, it is right next to the runway. So, me and Riley parked by all the other geeks, which were mostly old men, but that was okay. I had a big ass plane to show Riley. The B-1 Bombers weigh 190,000 pounds! They are all black and really, really loud. Sometimes when they take off, they cause a sonic boom, awesome! So as I sat in the car by the runway anxiously awaiting the arrival of "my plane" Riley played with the steering wheel on my car, turned all the buttons, etc. BUT, she did get excited when JetBlue either landed or took off. On the landings, she would wave "hi", like as in "welcome to Long Beach". On the take offs she would yell, "WoooHooo", which was very cute, I must add. Actually she is very cute!

Time passed, jets landed and took off. Yet, no B-1 Bomber. Then someone had some bad news. It now was suppose to come in between 5pm and 10pm. Riley was still cool about it as we left. Me, I was disappointed. So, I've been out by my pool for awhile this evening waiting for the B-1 to arrive. It's now almost 9pm and it still isn't here!! What's worse, its dark and I probably can't see it now, only here it, that is if it ever does get here! What's with the Air Force, can't they make us geeks happy by being on time!

Summer At Country Roads

When Mom is working in the garden and watering on a great June day, and its summer, what better way to pass the time than a dip in the "pool"! In this case, Yesi decided her daughter Josalyn could spend some time in a Country Roads type pool...totally country!! It was just one of those great summer days here in SoCal. The best part about little kids is it just takes so little to make them happy. Josalyn turned three years old yesterday. Where does the time go so quickly. So, after Josalyn was done playing in her own private "pool", what better way to end the day than to have a nice, cold "Lunchable" from Rod's! And being the polite, little kid that she is, Josalyn even offered to share her lunch with me. So as she sat in the middle of the Annie's Annuals perfectly happy and content, eating her lunch,and when I glanced over at the empty pool,it reminded me why I love kids, Summer and Country Roads. Its the small stuff that is special, that holds memories in my heart. Seeing the smile on Josalyn's face and hearing her laughter today made me remember,that's what means the most in life, just the small, every day stuff!! Take the time to notice, your days will be so much fuller. Happy Summer!

Happy Father's Day

That's me and my dad when I was little. We got along pretty good then, mostly because I couldn't talk back to him yet! My dad died on Valentine's Day in 2007 from complications of Alzheimers and missing my mom who passed away five months prior. This is my sister Teri with my dad. She couldn't talk back then either, but she usually didn't anyway. She was more like my mom, she just would walk away rather then scream till her last dying breath like I would! Me and my sister grew up pretty much like the rest of the world at that time. My dad worked for Edison his entire life and there wasn't always a bunch of money left over for the extras but it was a good life. Our vacations were called, "let's go for a ride" which meant usually going to someplace close in the car. This is my dad and us at the old Pier Point Landing in Long Beach, which is still where I live. I still live in Long Beach, not Pier Point Landing, in case you were wondering.After my dad died I learned more about him. He saved and documented everything, and I mean everything! In his WWII scrapbook,he even had a paw print of his platoons dog. Guess that's where we got the love for animals. My dad had a whole scrapbook FILLED with EVERYTHING his grandkids (my three kids) gave him. Photos, notes, and every Christmas card, like this one. His grandkids meant the world to him, and when my son Bryce was born, he was so excited because there was finally a "boy" in his family. And actually, as my son gets older I see more and more of my dad in him. Like when I came home from the store the other night and he was working on furniture in the garage like my dad use to do. My dad had that antique bug like all of us. Bryce had some "miner" kind of light strapped to his head so he could see better while working on a piece of furniture. Yep, he is definately still grandpa's boy! The last ten years of my mom and dad's life was tough, bordering hell for me. As I said before, when you're caught up in the dementia/Alzheimer cycle you never have time to come up for air and understand what's going on. We had to take three cars away from my dad, turn him into the DMV, and finally my sister and I had to move my parents into assisted living. My dad knew he needed to be there, but still hated it none the less. When Katie had Riley, my first grandchild, my mom died four days later. She got to see a picture of Riley, then just let go, it was her time. My dad was never the same,except when he held Riley in his arms And he would always say, "your mom would have loved this baby". One of my friends Leslie once said, "everyone has got a story to tell Sue, you know". So, this is my Father's Day story. It's not about sadness, its about memories, good ones. My dad was an ass, but in a good way if that makes sense. I use to HATE going over to see my dad on Father's day because he would say stuff like, "why did you get me this, I don't need it", or better yet toss the present aside and not open it. Buy hey, that was my dad, the world famous Mr. Moore!! So dad, at least I don't have to get you some dumbass gift this year you'll toss aside or hear you say, "why in the hell did you buy me this, I don't need it"! But instead, I have a lifetime of memories. Thanks, and by the way, I miss you!

The "LONGEST" 15 Minutes Ever!

Riley goes to swim school once a week, for 15 minutes, at this great little place in Seal Beach. Katie had been wanting me to go and watch for awhile now, but I kept making up excuses not to go because I knew Riley cries when she goes and that bothered me! I use to feel sad at different times when my kids cried when they were little, but NOTHING compares to how I feel when Riley cries when she is scared ( I should admit it's more like when she is mad as well). I guess it's been my week. I went to the doctors with Riley on Monday, and I thought I was going to cry when Riley started crying!! It just breaks my heart to see her scared, or hurt, or mad. Okay, back to swim school. Riley needs swimming lessons because I have a pool and we want her to be safe and also everyone wants her to be able to enjoy the water. Katie convinced me to go tonight with them to watch. On the way to the swim lessons, Riley was a bit sleepy in the car and I'm thinking to myself, "this may not be good". Sure enough, once Riley got in the water, I was right! She screamed and cried the WHOLE 15 minutes!! Despite the crying, it's really cool the way they teach the tiny kids to swim. The first thing they learn is when you go under the water, you flip over your back so you can float, thus you keep from drowning. Of course if you were kicking and screaming as loud as Riley was there might be a good chance you would take in some water in the process! All and all, as Riley got to ride on the raft and float back to all of us, and the sun was setting, I was thankful the lesson was over!! But I'm also thankful that I get to be a part of Riley's life in such a big way. I know there are some of you out there that know what I'm talking about, that bond that grasps your heart more than it did with your own kids. And even though the longest 15 minutes ever was tough, I'm grateful that Riley will soon learn to love the water and ocean just as I do!