It's just me... Scrappinjanettey

Hannah Senior Pictures...

2011-08-15T22:58:00.000-07:00

Here are my favorites from Hannah's senior picture session. This is from the photographer that is approved for the yearbook. She is having more taken by her good friend Anna later. I appologize for the horrible reproductions.. I got lazy and photographed them instead of scanning.. and then to get the picture with no glare from the overhead light, I put them on my computer keyboard and there is a little blue light on some of them...oh well, I just wanted you to see them. Isn't she just Gorgeous???

February 9th-February 26th

2011-02-26T22:48:00.000-08:00

Wow!! Life has been happening and my posting has not... so let's catch up!

February 9, 2011- Our 1995 Dodge Caravan.. I needed to take a picture so that we can try to sell it on Craig's List.. however, the picture is as far as I have gotten on that.. ;)

February 10, 2011- This is Dudley. Dudley is our friends the Gerardi's dog. I love Dudley and his "ear hat" he can make his ears do all sorts of things, but this is my favorite.

February 11, 2011- Hannah wanted to do something special for all the girls in her school (170 of them!) so she ordered and paid for 200 carnations. They shipped from Bogata Columbia on February 7th and arrived in Santa Maria on February 10th.. in the wee hours of the morning, we finished getting them ready for her to take to school today and give to all the girls as an early valentine from Hannah. She is so thoughtful.. makes me a proud mom.

February 12, 2011- Ruth and Bill came to spend the day with Mom and celebrate her birthday with her.

February 13, 2011- While Ruth and Bill were here, we took Mom to tour some assisted living facilities. Today I took a deposit check over to the place that we decided was the very best for her... Magnolia in Old Orcutt.

February 14, 2011- Tim and Bekah were gone for Valentines day and Hannah had the day off of school. Hannah and I went to lunch and the outlets. It was raining, but we really enjoyed ourselves... especially the candy apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory!

February 15, 2011- Kiwi LOVES to look at the food on the table from her Vulture Position.

February 16, 2011- Moonrise and Beautiful sunset out my front door...

February 17, 2011- Kiwi does NOT like it when Hannah closes her bedroom door. She will stand outside for HOURS waiting to be let in.

February 18, 2011- Big rain + wind storm= fence down

February 19, 2011- what the HAIL????

February 20, 2011- Our family spent the long weekend having a Star Wars marathon.. start to finish.

February 21, 2011- This pretty little parakeet is at Magnolia, it is the most unusually colored parakeet I have ever seen with that stripe on its tummy... or was.. the bird died just a few days after I took the picture :(

February 22, 2011- After big rains we see this guy (or other birds that look just like him) on the golf course outside of my workplace.

February 23, 2011- Mom moved into Magnolia today. This is a picture of her room (part of it anyway). She has a beautiful room with a beautiful view.

February 24, 2011- Varsity Swim Team!!!!

February 25, 2011- We are used to seeing birds and squirels and occasional little bunnies outside our office building.. but this guy startled me!

February 26, 2011- Tim and I drove to Sacramento today.. the snow just had started to fall on Cuesta Grade! Very unusual for Central Coast weather!

January 29th- February 8th

2011-02-09T16:43:00.000-08:00

January 29, 2011- Hannah and I had to go to SLO to get her a new suit for swim team. It was a fun Mom/Daughter day. We had lunch at Firestone Grill. As we were sitting there, I kept watching the Cal Poly students walking around and thought "That is Hannah in just a few years!" It was good to hang out with her. Need to do it more often!

January 30, 2011- The ProBowl from Hawaii. Kris Allen sang the National Anthem. We loved him on American Idol.

January 31, 2011- Getting gas today I noticed the old clock. Hadn't really "seen" it for awhile. To busy looking at stuff I guess. Anyway, I always loved this clock!

February 1, 2011- Tim's mom's 85th birthday. Grandson Will and family sent her the cutest flower "cake".

February 2, 2011- Today would have been my Grandad's 107th birthday. I miss him. His birthday falls on Groundhog Day. Today the groundhog predicted 6 more weeks of winter. In honor of Grandad and Groundhog day, we had a groundhog supper... pancakes and sausage (get it? Ground hog..)

February 3, 2011- Someone told Tim he needed to use a "NetiPot"... so he bought one and swears it is making his cold better... I am not so sure.. but hey it is worth a shot.

February 4, 2011- Ladies Bonco night at church. FOOD, FUN and lots of LAUGHTER.

February 5, 2011- We have been having some of the best weather and the prettiest sunsets lately. This is from the airport. Looks like Hawaii...

February 6, 2011- SuperBowl Sunday... Green Bay v. Pittsburg.... In honor of the Superbowl.. A picture of Superbowl rings... these are GreenBay rings from past superbowls... I have some connections :)

February 7, 2011- Monday nights at church is Mania.. the Jr. High Group. I am the ride home for Bekah and Allison. They love to come to Mania.. maybe they are Maniacs?

February 8, 2011- After 3 straight weeks of people in this house being sick, I thought it fitting to take a picture of the drugs... we live in a drug house.. but they are all legal :)

January 21th - January 28th

2011-01-28T17:14:00.000-08:00

January 21- This is a picture of my "Studio" also known as my corner of the living room. It is usually messy. It is usually unorganized. It is usually where I spend my evenings. I can watch TV with the family and still play on my computer or scrap a little.

January 22- Tonight we ordered pizza from Papa John's pizza. They are fairly new in the area. It was pretty cheap. It was pretty good. I was pretty impressed. We will be calling them again.

January 23- We had lunch after church today at Jack's in Old Orcutt. It is legendary for it's pies. We ordered a piece of the Chocolate Cream pie and I had the waitress set the whole pie on the table so I could snap a picture.

January 24- Hannah had to draw something representing the Salem Witch Trials (they are getting ready to read "the Crucible").. I think she did a remarkable and creepy job.

January 25- This is a picture of "Mud Lake". It is a water retention area near our house. The whole of Orcutt knows where Mud Lake is. It is a remarkably relaxing and yet noisy place. When there is water in it, there are frogs croaking and birds singing. It is lovely.

Jan. 26- So our psychotic dog, Kiwi, loves to go into Hannah's room and climb up into the window to watch the goings on in the neighborhood. She spends hours on the window sill behind the blinds (she is SO skinny!) barking her heart out. I snapped this picture while pulling out to take Hannah to school.

January 27- Ahhh.. my guilty pleasure... Cherry Coke Zero! This is hands down my favorite soda. We can only get it in cans here which is probably good. If it came in 2 liters, I would definitely drink too much.

January 28- Bekah likes waffles in the mornings. So I make a waffle for her (I have figured out the recipe for a single waffle.. 1/2 cup Krusteez, 1/2 T. Oil and 3 ounces of water- perfect amount for just one waffle) before taking Hannah to school.

Launch!

2011-01-21T08:13:00.000-08:00

Jan. 20, 2011- Living near VAFB we are accostomed to seeing rocket launches. The low rumble that makes you feel like maybe it is an earthquake.. the pinpoint of light at the end of the rocket and the beginning of the vapor trail. It is spectacular no matter how many times you see it. So today, there was a launch of a Delta Heavy rocket. The largest rocket to ever be launched at Vandenburg. We were all anticipating it. How loud would it be? How much more rumble? How much more spectacular? Well... it was kind of disappointing! We had just finished up work and I was walking back to my car. My camera was in the car (a few blocks away) so I pulled out my cell phone. I stood at a good viewing place and waited... the rocket was pretty far up in the sky by the time I saw it. It had been a relatively silent launch. No noise, no rumble. Just a rocket trail. I tried to get a picture with my cell phone, but the angle to the sun just made the picture useless. I got back to my car and pulled out my camera and snapped this picture of the vapor trail.

Tim was told that the "noise level" or lack thereof, was due to the rocket using liquid fuel instead of the normal solid rocket fuel. Whatever the reason, it was kind of a let down.

AMERICAN IDOL!!!

2011-01-19T21:01:00.000-08:00

Jan. 19, 2011- Tonight is the premier of American Idol for this season! We LOVE AI! I had to snap a picture of the TV screen.. didn't turn out half bad! Now, I need to get back to watching!

January 14- January 18th

2011-01-18T21:55:00.000-08:00

Jan. 14- Well, yesterday, I took a picture of the view from my desk at work. So I thought today I would take a picture of the view from my scrapbook table at home.

Jan. 15- Last night and all day today, I was at the AWAKEN conference at our church. This is a picture of some of my Life Timeline.

Jan. 16- Tonight, Tim and I went to a movie with Rich and MaryRose Gerardi. After the movie, we went to dinner at Tanner Jack's in Nipomo. We had never been there before, but I can promise you we will go back!

Jan. 17- Today was my monthly book club. This is the book we were discussing this month. I really liked it, but I need to re-read it. I read it about 4 months ago.

Jan. 18- Tonight was a full moon. I love when the full moon comes up next to the palm tree in our neighbor's yard. Very California...

Enjoying the view...

2011-01-13T17:15:00.000-08:00

Jan. 13, 2011- my job at times can be stressfull.. deadlines, difficult customers on the phone, more work than I could do in my 5 hours.. but the setting is so tranquil it balances everything else out. We are situated on a golf course (not just ANY golf course but the country club!). My desk looks out at the T box on one of the back nine holes (I think). I watch golfers T-off. I watch them drive the little carts. I hear them talking (when it is nice and we have the doors open) and laughing. I have seen it all.. seriously.. one day I looked up from my desk and a golfer was relieving himself on a tree out there! Ha! Anyway, since I spend a fair amount of time at this desk.. and since I had my camera with me today.. I took a picture of the view from my desk.

January 11 and January 12, 2011

2011-01-12T16:06:00.000-08:00

January 11- Today the sunrise was really spectacular. Now if the saying is acurate, I should stay off of boats! (Please tell me that you know "red sky at morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night sailor's delight".. do you? My mom can't be the only one who knows every saying and phrase, can she? )

Jan. 12- Hannah got her official driver's license in the mail today. She now has a valid form of ID besides her passport card or birth certificate (which we frown on carrying around on a daily basis)... Recently, California started making underage driver's licenses vertical instead of horizontal.. and if you hold a flashlight to the back of the card and look at the front of the card you can see a bear made out of tiny pin holes. Pretty cool.. and true to every other woman driver in history, she hates her picture on the driver's license!

Hallelujah!!!!

2011-01-10T20:03:00.000-08:00

Jan. 10, 2011- This morning the kids headed back to school after the 3 week Christmas break. It was 30 degrees when Hannah and I got into the car this morning! I know some people think that complaining about 30 degrees is being whimpy.. but this is the CENTRAL COAST! 30 is COLD! So anyway, Hannah started complaining that leather seats are cold when a lightbulb went off above my head (I really think it did!) and so when we stopped for Starbucks, We looked on the side of the seats and saw THIS! SEAT WARMERS! We have seat warmers!!!! I think I heard angels singing! :)

My New Project... Project Life

2011-01-10T08:28:00.000-08:00

In 2011, I am going to participate in PROJECT LIFE.. basically, it is a photo a day. Pictures of my ordinary daily life kinds of things with lifes special moments throw in as well. For instance, on Sunday, our lives pretty much revolves around church.. so you might see pictures of things at church that we see every week and take for granted. So come along on my journey and see my life through the lens of my camera. I will try to post at least once a week, but maybe more.

January 1- Happy New year! We had our freinds the Hoffman's come over from Fresno to celebrate the new year with us. We have been celebrating with them for several years now.. so it is our "tradition". Here are the girls, Kelsey, Kirsten, Bekah and Hannah just after the ball dropped on Dick Clark's Rockin New Year's eve...

January 2- Kiwi loves the Christmas tree. She loves to hang out under it. I am not sure what the appeal is, but it becomes her favorite spot while it is up.

Jan. 3- We get our children every toy and electronic thing known to man.. so what do I see when I look out the kitchen window? Bekah and her friends.. sitting on the curb playing in the mud... really?

Jan.4- My friend Julie gave me these slipper/boots for my birthday in November. I am really enjoying them during the extra cold winter days.. well ok, so in California "extra cold" isn't extreme but I am freezing on the days it doesn't make it to 60 degrees!

Jan. 5- This year, I am the PTSA Auditor for Orcutt Junior High School. I am responsible to check the books 2 times this year to see if all the i's have been dotted and t's crossed and that the books balance.

Jan.6- Today a miracle occurred!!! I had to got to the DMV to look into my renewed license.. I was in and out of the DMV in 15 minutes flat! Our DMV is notorious for 2 and 3 HOUR waits.. so I felt very blessed indeed!

Jan.7- Just before Christmas, I saw a perfect dining room set at Costco. I talked my husband into going to buy it after Christmas, but they were sold out. Last night, I called Costco and they were back in stock. We went to buy it.. but I don't know what we were thinking! It was 5 huge boxes and only one would fit in my little SUV. We called on our friend Greg to come with his small pickup and help.. but only 3 boxes would fit in his truck! So Tim and Greg made one trip to our house while I stood out in the parking lot with the other two boxes and read a book.. it was FREEZING and DARK! I got several weird looks and an offer to help... today we rearranged stuff and now my new dining room set looks FABULOUS!

Jan.8- Kiwi loves to sleep in a sunbeam. She goes out of her way to find them. Today, I found her in the dirty towel hamper which happened to be in the sun!

Jan.9- Today Bekah and I were at church getting ready to watch the toddlers. I noticed that Bekah matched the Zebras painted on the wall!

Rings and things...

2010-06-09T08:57:00.000-07:00

So, last night, Hannah was given her class ring at the first EVER OAHS ring ceremony. Basically it is to recognize that the class of 2012 has now moved from underclassmen to upperclassmen.. technically. Since they are the top class at the school, they have always been the upperclass, but the symbolic move from the sophmore class to the junior class is a tradition that the school wants to start. SO, here is Hannah with Mr. Majewski the principal. He received the FIRST class ring tonight as well (it was a suprise to him)...we are all very sad that Mr. Majewski is leaving as principal. The district is sending him to a different school.

And in other happenings, today is the LAST day that Bekah would walk to school at Dunlap. She has one more day tomorrow, but it is the 6th grade breakfast, so I will take her to school. She and her buddy Shawna (who is a 5th grader) have been walking to school everyday for a few years now. I am going to miss watching them walk down the sidewalk together.

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! She's DRIVING!

2010-05-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

SO Hannah took the test to get her permit on Wednesday. Today was her first behind the wheel session with the instructor, so now her permit is valid and she can drive us around. Don't know if my heart will be able to take it, but she seems to be doing ok!

Elementary School is winding down...

2010-05-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

We have had a child at Dunlap elementary school since the fall of 1999 when Hannah started kindergarden. We have been to every back to school night, every fall festival, every family bingo night or movie night or spaghetti dinner, etc. Well tonight was our very last Open House to attend. Bekah will be moving on to Junior high school next year. This year, we looked at all of her classroom projects, but we didn't have to go to the classrooms of the next grade up to "check out the teachers" like we normally do. It was quite bitter sweet. We have wonderful memories of the school and the kids, parents and teachers at Dunlap. In the next few weeks, the 6th graders will be busy. Tomorrow is a swim party as a reward for the jog a thon money raisers. On Tuesday, they leave for Science Camp until friday. The last week of school includes, a trip to lake Lopez to release the trout that they have been raising, along with a few hours at the water slides. And the 6th grade breakfast on the last day of school. I will be taking some pictures to capture our last moments at Dunlap.

Where have I been???

2010-05-10T19:08:00.000-07:00

Ok so what happened to March and April??? I really didn't drop off the face of the earth. Let me see if I can bring you up to date.

In March, we had swimming and church stuff. Bekah's 12th birthday came and went and my parents came to visit.

April became our community service month. We started with helping 200 other people from churches all over town paint over graffitti. Then the next weekend, Hannah did a 30 hour famine to raise money for World Vision AND she helped at the special olympics (while very hungry!). the 3rd weekend, we helped clean up the high school campus for the Disney "give a day get a day" project.

Now we are on to May. Tim and I celebrated our 24th anniversary on the 3rd. We are going to see James Taylor and Carol King on the 18th as our gift to each other.
Mother's day was wonderful with lots of me time.

Tim's mom has been having lots of memory issues lately and today the doctor told her she needs to stop driving (an answer to prayer as we also thought she should stop, but didn't want to be the bad guys) so we have now taken up the transportation for her to all her appointments and shopping needs.

Now we are hitting the home stretch of school with about 5 weeks left.

Whew.. I need a summer vacation!

SWIMMER!!!!

2010-03-05T21:03:00.000-08:00

So, Hannah had her first swim meet today... her VERY FIRST EVER swim meet. It was also OAHS's swim team's VERY FIRST EVER meet. They have had 6 practices and of the 19 several swimmers are pretty much beginners. There are 4 swimmers that are in club and then Hannah and a few others that swim pretty well, but have never competed. They had a meet with Nipomo High School. The Nipomo JV team also had some basic beginners as well. Hannah was in the the 4x50 freestyle relay (they took 2nd of 5 teams), the 50 Breaststroke, and the 50 backstroke. She did really well. Now she has her first posted time, so she can shoot for improving that. She is loving it. Here are some pictures of the breaststroke.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!

2010-01-07T00:12:00.000-08:00

Well, 2009 is gone, it is now 2010... it seems like just last year that everyone was talking about Y2K... but then I guess it seems like just last year Hannah was starting school and now she is in High school!
We went to Fresno (our "tradition") for a New Year's Eve celebration with our friends the Hoffman family. We had lots of good food, lots of shopping and lots of fun. The girls are still out of school for a few more days, so we are staying up late, watching movies and sleeping in. All that will come to a screeching halt on Monday... I am already looking forward to spring break!
Here are a few holiday pictures... Happy New year to you all!

Hannah and Bekah with Nana on Christmas evening... notice they are still in their jammies... that is the mark of a wonderful day!

Bekah and Kirsten

The whole gang Jan. 1, 2010

Hannah and Kelsey

Christmas is coming.. the goose is getting fat... ???

2009-12-19T13:59:00.000-08:00

Well, since we are not growing our own Christmas goose, I guess that song doesn't work for us. The kids had their last day of school yesterday.... now we can have all day pajamas and lazy days until January 11th!

Since I haven't blogged in awhile, lets go over some highlights...

Hannah went on a trip to Tijuana Mexico. Our church supports an "orphanage", it's a boys home really. Run by a couple who wanted to help some of the street children. They aren't a govt. agency or anything, just people who want to share the love of Jesus with these destitute boys. We, as a church, undertake buying all the kids Christmas gifts. A family in our church selects a boy or girl (the staff have some girls, but it is a boys home) and buy what that child wants for Christmas and some clothes etc. Then they bring the box back to church where our 1-5th grade kids wrap the gifts. Then a group of people go down to hang out with the boys and deliver the gifts. Hannah and Tim went a few years ago. Then, last year, we got Hannah a passport so that she could go, but the trip part got canceled becasue there was some pretty scary violence going on in Tijuana. The boys home director, Luis, met our people on the Cali side of the border and picked up the gifts. Hannah was NOT going to miss the trip this year. She had a great time. Here are some pictures...

Painting is DONE! Well, the Family room, living room and dining room are done, but now the entry way and hallway and kitchen look shabby... so maybe after Christmas there will be MORE painting. We are loving the new colors. Here are some pictures...

Well that is about all... things are looking like Christmas inside.. but in California it never seems to look like Chirstmas outside! This is what I saw outside yesterday...

Vultures are the bane of Kiwi's existance... they favor the pine tree in our neighbor's yard. Yesterday when I drove in from work, there were 12 vultures out there! Kiwi is offended that they want to sit there and barks her little head off... and if they DARE fly over our yard, she runs the length of the yard after them and telling them to STAY OUT!

Here is a picture of Kiwi in her Christmas finest and in her favorite Christmas hiding place...

Merry Christmas!

Painting is not done..

2009-11-16T08:19:00.000-08:00

But here are a few preliminary photos. The color is Mesa Taupe. I love it. The accent wall is a dark brown.. not done yet. I will post more pictures as I get finished. Mostly just wanted my parents to see the results, since they were here during the color selection phase. :o)

New Family Room Furniture!!!!

2009-09-21T15:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, it has been about 8 years since we purchased our sofa/sectional and put in new carpeting. The sectional was getting pretty thread bare and the recliners didn't work anylonger. So we decided to look for some new furniture. I tried all the furniture stores in town... they want at LEAST $700 for a sofa. Then I remembered that my friends John and Roxanne had gotten a great couch at Big Lots. (sorry if that was supposed to be a secret you two!). SO, I went to big lots... and guess what??? They have a lot of VERY nice furniture. AND the sofa's were under $400. They are made by Simmons.. they are just last years stuff I guess. Anyway, we are now the proud owners of new furniture! We got a sofa and two big overstuffed chairs and an ottoman. They are SUPER Comfy! Bekah has already decided they are great reading chairs!

I am thinking that we need a second ottoman... but we LOVE our new room. Now I just need to paint...

YIKES!!! I am a BAD blogger!

2009-09-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

So.. I really am a horrible blogger.. it has been June since my last post... I guess I need to post an abreviated update of July, August and September!!! So, here it goes:

At the end of June we drove up to see Mom and Dad in Payette, Idaho. My Aunt Dee and my cousin Laura and her husband LeRoye were there. We had an open house for my Aunt Dee's 80th birthday. Got to see a whole bunch of people from when I was a kid.
We drove with Mom and Dad and my sister Natalie up to Wallowa Lake for a week.

While at Wallowa we played Mini Golf, the kids went with Tim and my Dad fishing, we went swimming, Skyped with my brother Drex and his family while they were in Paris, and fed the deer that were all around our cabin. We even had to shoo them off our deck.

Then we drove home, thru Nevada as usual... such beautiful scenery...

We stopped in Reno to spend an extra day. We stayed at the Peppermill... who knew this was here? I didn't. Reno is usually just a place we drive thru... anyway, I would recommend the Peppermill's Tuscan Tower suites. VERY nice.

Hannah turned 15 in August... Her BFF turned 15 the day before... here they are with the cake at their birthday party. We had a car rally. Kind of a scavenger hunt on wheels. It was really fun.

The day before school started we went to the water park in Paso Robles. It was only about 96 that day.. so very nice. The kids had a great time. One last fling before school.

First Day of school. Hannah is in 10th grade. Bekah is in 6th grade. Our last year in elementary school... we have been coming to this school every year since Hannah started Kindergarten in 1999!

Over Labor Day weekend, our kids had Tuesday off as well. We went to the beach for a friend's birthday party. It was SO nice. The summer crowds are all gone and our best weather of the year is just starting.... I can see several more beach trips in September and October.

So, that is our summer in a whirlwind tour. For the whole story you will have to check out my scrapbooks!

Cleaning out...

2009-06-12T18:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, I have been organizing my scrapping stuff... Can you say WAY TO MUCH???

So, I have started downsizing some stuff. I will try to sell things to my interested friends before heading to craigslist. If you live out of the area, I can mail them, so add $5.00 (everything but the work station.. no international please!) So here are some things you might be interested in. (You can call me, or send me a message on FB or the Dawg or Freak. Most of you can find my phone number... church directory, dawg list, freak list etc..):
Creative Options Rolling work Station. I LOVE this storage tote! It went with me to numerous crops and retreats! It holds so much stuff! I used to always leave it loaded and just sitting by my scrap table, so when it was time to go to a crop, I just closed it up and rolled it out to the car! So, why get rid of it? It won't fit in my new car. Bummer. But that might be good for you! The listed price on Overstock.com is $122. I think that is high. I think I paid about $100 for it. Anyway, it can be yours for $50.

The Magic Mesh Freeze Frame.

LOVE this idea! I just don't scrap this way, so I have only used it once. You can see it used in a video at http://www.thefreezeframe.com/ check it out! Retails for $29.99 and refills of the mesh are $5.99. I have the freeze frame and one refill. It can be yours for $20.

We R Memory Keepers Crop-a-dile:

This punches a hole in almost any material. It cuts like buttah... and it can set eyelets and snaps like nothing else.. no more hammering! I LOVE this tool. I got a new and improved version for Christmas and I don't need 2. Retails for $29.99. You can have it for $13.

Hero Arts Rubber Stamp Set- Ribbons and Stitches

This is the cutest stamp set.. stamp your own ribbon, ric-rac and stitches. The set retails for $24 and is Brand new never been opened. Yours for $12.

That's it for now. Call me if you are interested!

Spring Formal

2009-05-24T21:57:00.000-07:00

Orcutt Academy had a Spring Formal last night. The theme was Hollywood, and it was a Masquerade ball. We found a beautiful purple dress with black and sparkles. Then we found a purple velvet mask. We added a few things to the mask to make it totally unique. She looked stunning. She seems to have had a good time too. Of the 110 students in the school (just the freshman class this year) I think they sold something like 57 tickets. The school year has been great. We are really happy that Hannah decided to go to the Academy.

Ahhh, spring in San Francisco!

2009-04-15T01:03:00.001-07:00

It is FREEZING here! We spent today doing all the touristy stuff... Golden Gate Bridge, Marin Headlands, Cable Cars, Fisherman's warf. It was bright, sunny, and blowing a gale! It was about 55 degrees outside, but the wind chill made it downright COLD! Tonight we had dinner with the SF branch of the Pettey Family at Buca di Beppo... yummy! Good to see Marvin and Janice, and Jonathan and Rhoda. Tomorrow we are off to Sacramento. We are having dinner with Hannah's Birthmom, Laurie on the way. Here are some of the pictures from today...

Hello Mountaineer, good bye mini van!

2009-03-20T22:03:00.000-07:00

Well a two weeks ago, I was driving home from dropping the kids at the school. I looked down at the gauges in the car and the tempature gauge was in the HOT zone. So I pulled over, called Tim, and waited for it to cool down. We took the car into the shop and found out that the car needed a new water pump, head gasket, and radiator work... $1800.. yikes! So the big question became: Fix a car that isn't worth as much as the cost of repairs, or buy a car for at least 5 times as much as the repairs?
My Mom and Dad were on the way to visit us from Idaho the next day. Well it just so happens that my Dad LOVES to shop for a good used car. So we set him to work looking for a vehicle. We decided that we needed a car that would hold 7 people since I am always hauling kids and their friends around, BUT we really didn't want another mini van. I loved my van, don't get me wrong, but I was ready to move out of the "stroller mom" car.

We set about looking for a big SUV. We found a 2001 Ford Excursion in great shape for $8200... pretty good price... downside, it had 100,400 miles already. We thought about it... but couldn't see buying a car with that many miles.. especially since Fords need a new transmission before 120,000 miles (most times anyway).
We looked at all the car lots in town. We found some, but they were either too high mileage or they were not in great shape. We looked on car trader.com for SUV's within 100 miles of us. We found a 2002 Toyota Sequoia 2 hours south of here with 70,000 miles for $10,800. We tried to set up a time to go see it. We couldn't get together with the seller until Sunday. We also found a 2003 Tahoe 1 hour north of here. Saturday, We drove up to see it. Didn't like the Tahoe, but found a 2003 Mercury Mountaineer. This car is an step up from a ford explorer. It was CLEAN! And I mean REALLY CLEAN! It had leather, power everything, and a third seat for the teenagers I am always carting around. It had 66,000 miles. AND it was lower than $10000 which was our upper budget limit.
So now the hard part... do we leave and go see the Sequoia on Sunday.. and hope that ,if the Sequoia turns out not to be our car, that the Mountaineer would still be there on Monday? Or do we buy the Mountaineer and just not look at the Sequoia? Is "A bird in the hand" really "worth 2 in the bush"?
So we stood there and talked it all out.

1. The Mountaineer has leather, the Sequoia cloth

2. The Mountaineer is CLEAN, the Sequoia might be.. might not tho too.

3. The Mountaineer is under our budget, the Sequoia is over.

4. The Mountaineer is a bit smaller than the Sequoia, but they both hold 7 passengers.

5. The Carfax report shows the Mountaineer has never been in an accident.. the Sequoia has been in one accident where the police were called... the owner said it was just a superficial bumper ding..

6. The Mountaineer had one owner, the Sequoia had been a lease that the present owner bought from a dealer when it had 12,000 miles.

7. The Mountaineer is a known quantity, the Sequoia looks good on paper.

8. Toyota's are known to run forever... Mercury's are "Ford Products".

9. Gas Mileage is about the same in each.

10. The Mountaineer had running boards, the Sequoia didn't.. we would have had to have some installed or I wouldn't be able to get in the car! So add another $400 to the price.

We finally decided that the sole reason we were hesitating was because the Sequoia was a Toyota and NOT a ford product that might need a new tranny at 120,000 miles. My dad pointed out that the price difference was the cost of a new tranny... so even if we needed to replace it, we weren't really out more money than buying the Toyota.

SO, we signed the papers, paid the man and drove it home!

Now what to do with the Caravan? We didn't trade it in, because we didn't want to drive it an hour and possibly not buy a car and have to drive it an hour home (needs a water pump...)

We were told by the car dealer and our mechanic to list it on Craigslist.com. So Wednesday at noon I placed the ad on Craigslist. At 12:10 a guy called to look at it (it had only been listed for 10 minutes!) and another at 12:15! By 1pm, I had sold the van and removed the listing! Wow! That was FAST! So, good bye mini van... we have enjoyed driving you these past 115,o00 miles!

Proud of my girls!

2009-01-31T22:05:00.001-08:00

I am always proud of my girls, but this weekend I am REALLY PROUD!
Friday, Bekah receive the Student of the Month award for her classroom. This is 6 years in a row that she has been a student of the month!

Then tonight was Hannah's first high school formal dance. She worked really hard with the ASB on decorations and planning. They were down there last night and again today decorating. We had gotten her a beautiful dress in Fresno (see post below) and she LOOKS BEAUTIFUL! Here are pictures I snapped in the living room.. bad lighting and dark, I will post the professional dance pictures when we get them back, but wanted to share.

GO SPARTANS!!!!

2009-01-17T18:13:00.000-08:00

As most of you know (if you read my blog, you know anyway) that Hannah is at a brand new charter high school this year. That means that everything they do is a "first" almost. Hannah has been playing on the girls soccer team. It has been a rough season so far. First, there are only enough players to play most games. We are lucky if we have a sub. Then they are playing teams that have at least Sophomores on them. Some teams we play have juniors and seniors on the team as well. We have no home games, because we didn't have CIF sanctioned goals (we do now, so next season we can have home games.). The team has been working really hard. Practicing every day, really getting to know each other, etc. They had 2 games before the Christmas break, they lost them both 5-1. Then they practiced all during the break and last saturday played their 3rd game. They lost 8-1. Still they weren't getting too concerned. Heck the school wasn't even planning on offering soccer, but the kids went out to their classmates and recruited players so they could field a team! They are just happy to be playing!

Well, today started off as a "chamber of commerce" day! GORGEOUS weather! It was sunny, not windy and into the low 80's! Not bad for January. We drove out to Midland School to play their girls' team. Again we would be playing a team with all four grades on it. Midland is a rustic setting out in the hills (right across the street from the drive way to Michael Jackson's Neverland Ranch..) It is a boarding school that costs $35 thousand a year. The kids live in cabins that are heated with wood stoves. They have to start a fire to heat the water to take a shower. They go to school 6 days a week! So we are out there on this beautiful day, watching history! WE WON! 6-0!!!!! Hannah saw very little action as she is the only goalie and so she was on the side of the field where the ball wasn't most of the game. The 3 times it came anywhere near her, she blocked and kicked really well! Here is a picture of her in mid drop kick. Now we can say the Spartans WON!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

2009-01-13T15:51:00.000-08:00

Ok, this is just a few weeks late! I just have been too busy living life to blog about it... do you believe me? You shouldn't. I am just a lazy bum!

ANYWAY, Happy new year!!!! We had a great new year's eve at the Hoffman's in Fresno. We played games and stayed up late. The girls had fun and so did the dogs! Dawn took us down to the downtown area in Fresno (not a place to be after dark... or alone!) and we went to a dress shop to look for a Formal Dress for Hannah. We found a gorgeous dress (pictures will folllow in a few weeks) and it was not too bad price wise.
Now we are home and trying to get back into the swing of school schedules. I don't like getting up early!

Christmas Highlights

2008-12-28T00:01:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from Christmas.

Bekah made a gingerbread house.

The girls on Christmas morning. Before gifts were opened.
The Girls on Christmas Morning AFTER the gifts were opened. They got a Wii Guitar Hero World Tour Band kit. So they have spent hours now perfecting their drumming.

After the presents had all been removed from under the Tree, I found Kiwi there, under the tree with one of her Christmas presents. The silly dog had dragged her bed across the room to be under the tree!

The Girls with Nana. See how tall they are both getting? Or maybe Nana is shrinking. Or maybe both.

We took Kiwi to see Santa at Petsmart. She is either doing the "walk like and Egyptian" song or trying to make a speedy get away! The only thing that I cared about was it got the girls to pose with Santa.. they wouldn't do it last year.

I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas. Happy New year!

Busy, Busy, BUSY weekend!

2008-12-06T19:57:00.000-08:00

This weekend has been BUSY! On Friday, Hannah had her first soccer game. THE very FIRST ever OAHS Soccer game. We are getting used to saying "the very first" about alot of things for school! :o)

The game was at Carpinteria high school in Carpinteria. It is about 1 1/2 hours south of here. The boy's game was at 3pm and the girls at 5pm. They took a team bus and got out of school early at 1pm. We left when Bekah got out of school, ran in to traffic and arrived at the school as the girls were taking the field to warm up. The boys lost 11-0. They have several boys who have never played soccer, so actually being in a game was monumental for some of them.. there is no where to go but up! The girls played really well. Hannah was goalie and had some FABULOUS blocks and saves. Her coach was very complementary of her. She really likes her coach. She played college soccer and even coached at the college level. We feel very fortunate to have her coaching Hannah this year. The girls lost 5-1. They really had fun and the loss didn't seem to get them down. They play Carpinteria again next week. We are hoping that both teams improve upon their scores! When you only have a class of 118 and all freshman, it is hard to compete with teams from 2000 person schools. But the kids are competing and learning alot about playing high school sports! Hannah got back last night at 9pm. She came home, grabbed some clothes and went to spend the night at a friend's (and fellow soccer player's) home. I picked the girls up this morning (Saturday) at 6:50 am so we could go help reseed the soccer field at school. This is a school of 118 kids and at 7am, there were 37 of them ready to help. What a great "family" building activity! (they also logged community service hours for this.. they need 40 hours of community service to graduate. So they weren't all totally selfless, but there are easier ways to earn those hours, so I was still pretty impressed.) We finished at 11, and Hannah came home, showered, ate lunch and then I drove her BACK to school to work on the float for the Christmas Parade of Lights which was tonight. They finished the float at 3:30, and needed to be at the parade staging area at 4:30. We dropped Hannah off, drove down the parade route a few blocks and found a parking spot. We waited for the 5:20 start of the parade. The OAHS float was entrant number 21 (out of 100 or so), so we watched the parade until they went by. Then we went back to the car, drove to the mall (which is where the parade finished up) and got a table at Red Robin. Hannah came to the restaraunt just as the food arrived (she was pretty thirsty and hungry) and we had a nice relaxing dinner and then drove home. I think that we got home before the parade was over! Hannah is TIRED! And so am I!

MUD!

2008-11-26T19:11:00.000-08:00

Wow! Time goes by quick! I can't believe it is almost the end of November already!

So, Hannah has started practice for the High school soccer team. (the first EVER soccer team) and their first game is December 5th! We will drive the 1 1/2 hour trip to Carpinteria to watch history being made! Yesterday and today it poured the rain! They still had practice yesterday. THIS is what came home! She said they did a victory slide in the mud after beating the boys in a scrimage... whatever. I don't know if these clothes will ever be clean again. At least she is having fun!

Halloween 2008

2008-10-31T19:59:00.000-07:00

So, here I am on Halloween night, watching a chick flick on TV, and handing out candy. My kids and husband abandoned me tonight (I let them do it too!). Tim's football team is playing out of town, so he left at 4pm. Then Hannah left to go trick or treating (I guess that is still OK in 9th grade..) with her friend and spend the night at 5:30, and Bekah was off to trick or treat with Kiana's family at 6...
So, Kiwi and I are just hanging out, and passing out candy. It is lonely.
Before the kids left, I did take pictures, so here they are!

40!!!!

2008-10-30T07:19:00.001-07:00

My little brother, Drex, is 40 today! It is making me feel OLD. I remember when he was born! I remember going to the hospital and standing down in the parking lot, and Mom holding him in the window so we could see. No kids allowed in the hospital back then. No visiting. Then I remember him in a white bassinett (sp?) that had wheels so that Mom could roll him around the house.
I also remember being asked to look after him the next summer and I would take him outside and put him on a blanket and then read all afternoon. He didn't like the feel of grass, so I knew he wouldn't leave the blanket! Oh, it isn't as bad as that sounds, I was on the blanket too! I was just reading, so I wanted to know that while I was lost in the book, he wasn't wandering around.
I remember Natalie and I liked to dress him up, kind of like a live doll! I can't find the infamous picture of the Red leather dress and go go boots, but I am sure you can imaging it! (maybe that trauma explains ALOT about him today!)
Drex and I share a love of science. Although he is much more brilliant than I will ever be (don't tell him that though, I like him to think I am at least as smart as he is!)we have been able to talk about science kinds of things.
We also shared a first car (not at the same time, but my first car became his) a 1965 Mustang I named Maynard. It was a beat up car, but it was a Mustang none the less!
Now, Drex is a middle aged (sorry, dude) husband and father. I know that he puts his family first and that is a testament to the kind of person he is.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY DREX! I love you!

Family and Glasses

2008-10-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

Mimi and Dadad were here visiting for the last 10 days. We had a great time, playing games, watching movies, telling stories. We love it when they come to visit. They left this morning to go to Arizona to see my Aunt Dee. Here they are with Hannah and Bekah this morning on the way out the door.

2 weeks ago, Hannah had a sports physical for school. The doctor told me to take her and get her eyes checked because she didn't do well in his prelim exam. So, while Mom was here, we had her checked and picked out frames. They came in tonight, so it was just a few hours too late for Mimi to see the final product. Hannah is excited to be sporting such stylish glasses. She looks really cute, AND she can now see the board at school!

GO BEAVERS! GO BEAVERS!!!!

2008-09-25T22:26:00.000-07:00

So my alma mater OSU took on the #1 Ranked USC Trojans tonight...
Yeah baby! OSU beat THE #1 RANKED Trojans 27-21!!!!!!!!!!!

Go Beavers, Go Beavers, Go Beavers!!!!

Guitar Hero.

2008-09-10T22:52:00.000-07:00

We bought Guitar Hero for Tim for Christmas last year. He enjoys the game...when he can wrestle it out of one of the girls' hands!

So, Bekah this week, completed the medium level of Guitar Hero. QUITE IMPRESSIVE... especially when you see how she does it! She totally holds the guitar backwards. I asked her if she would just rather turn it around, and she tried, but likes her "Cross handed" method better. It sure doesn't seem to affect her. She is by far the best player in the family!

First day of School... REALLY THE FIRST DAY!

2008-08-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

So, today was the first day of school for the girls. I think they were excited because when I got up at 5:50am, Bekah was already up and fully dressed watching tv! Hannah was up already too, but still working on getting ready! I thought that I was going to be dragging them out of bed because they have been staying up late and sleeping in all summer!

This was also the REAL first day of Hannah's school. The Charter school had a ribbon cutting ceremony at 7:45. Hannah is really excited to be part of this brand new school. She is on the ASB as the Commissioner of Clubs and Athletics. She is already really busy. GO SPARTANS!!

Here are some pics from the morning!

Here they are in all their splendor, wide awake before the sun was up!!!

Here the ASB members are introduced. The look on Hannah's face is the "don't take any more pictures" look that I get alot these days!

The ribbon Cutting... Orcutt Academy High School is officially opened with its first graduating class, the class of 2012 beginning the journey.

Blue and white balloons, released with a cheer! GO SPARTANS!

After sending Hannah off to face her high school classes, it was Bekah's turn to head to school. She was greeted with screams and hugs from her bff Kiana and her friend Dorin.

Bekah with her Teacher Mr. Greenup. Off to 5th grade!

They are off to school and I am back to work... Summer is officially over!

OH, and Happy 51st Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!!

Concert Season

2008-08-02T15:22:00.001-07:00

I hadn't been to a concert for a decade or so, until May that is. Julie and I went to see Carrie Underwood (see the post in May about that). Then we found out that Fergie was coming to the Paso Fair and Hannah thought that would be fun to go. So we bought tickets. The concert was Thursday, so we went up to the Fair, spent the day (it was HOT) and the kids rode some rides. Then we went to the concert. The opening band was HORRIBLE! Just HORRIBLE! Then Fergie came out and sang for about 40 minutes (minus the brief times to change clothes) and came out for an encore. Tim was SO MAD! He was upset that a concert would only be about 40 minutes long. I told him that Carrie Underwood probably only sang for about 15 minutes longer than this at her concert. He couldn't believe it. After the concert, the kids rode some more, we had funnel cake and came home. We got home about 1 am.

Friday, Tim and I had tickets to see James Tayor at the Santa Barbara Bowl. So Tim's mom came to stay with the kids and we got a hotel in Santa Barbara. We met Craig and Sue for dinner and then they went to the concert with us. The night was BEAUTIFUL! The Santa Barbara bowl is a unique venue. We could see the ocean from our seats. JT came out and did 2 forty minute sets AND a 3 song encore. So, Tim was happy that someone still knows how to put on a good show! I think that I have spent my Concert allotment for the next decade, but it was fun!

Just another Day in Paradise!

2008-07-29T21:05:00.000-07:00

So we went to the beach today. Can I just say we live in a beautiful part of this state?!! It was a gorgeous day. Not too hot, not too windy, not too crowded. We got there at noon and left at 5:30. Stopped for dinner on the way home. Home by 8. GREAT DAY! We parked in a 3 hour spot, and hoped they weren't checking since it was mid week. We got to the car, NO ticket... just a great day! The kids explored the tide pools, found some crabs and other critters. They boogie boarded. They had a great time! I sat and talked with friends, took a walk along the beach, took pictures and had a fabulous time. The only problem is that I forgot to put sunscreen on my legs and right now the tops of my thighs feel like they will spontaneously combust any second! They are seriously the color of my red t-shirt! oops.

Can you believe that we live so close to this paradise and yet this is the first time to the beach this summer? We actually do prefer the beach in September after the valley folks have gone home for the season, and when our weather is PERFECT, but usually we would have been to the beach before the end of July! Here are some pictures.

I just want to go HOME... or two strikes and your out!

2008-07-20T02:38:00.000-07:00

It is 3:30 am here in Cortez Colorado. We left Horn Creek today and drove here. We came over some of the prettiest country I have ever seen. We went from Salida to Pagosa Springs over Wolf Creek Pass. A must drive if you are in the area. We had lunch in Pagosa Springs and then drove to Durango and on to Cortez.
When we stayed in Cortez 4 years ago, we stayed in a really run down old hotel in a part of town that looks down right seedy. So this year, Tim really wanted to stay in Durango instead. The only problem was that would make for a long day tomorrow (or today I guess) as we need to get as far as Kingman Arizona in order to make it home by Monday. (ok, so some of you think that we are wimps only wanting 7 hour driving days, but with our kids, we would rather split it up than make a 10 hour day.) So we booked a hotel online thru Travelocity. Guess what? SAME hotel new name. SHEESH. Anyway, I don't think that we will be staying in Cortez again. If you happen to find yourself needing to make reservations in Cortez, find a big name brand hotel on Main street, not an independent motel on Broadway!
So, we got here at 5 pm and then went to Pizza Hut for dinner at about 7. Everything seemed fine with the meal. I got to sleep at about 11:30. I woke up at 12:30 with terrible acid indigestion. Took some meds and went back to bed. At 1:30, Bekah woke up complaining about stomache pains. She was crying about how bad it hurt. She can be a drama queen, so I was trying to get her to be a little quieter so as not to wake other motel guests with her complaining. Well, that went on for about 3o minutes until she threw up. Poor baby, it really is terrible to be sick away from home! Then she went back to bed for about 20 minutes and then got up again and started all over. This has now become the routine. Just as I started to drift off, she is up again. I figured I might as well get online since I was not sleeping. Oh and at 2:15 the neighbors upstairs must have come home from a bar, because they spent the next hour or so, stomping around, yelling, slamming doors, etc. At 3:30 when Tim went out to get some paper towels out of the car, they were out on the balcony yaking it up. Really loud... so I am not so concerned about how much noise Bekah is making now.
It is now 4am and she just got up again. We decided around 3:30 that we were not going to try to get an early start tomorrow. We will get out of here around 11 which puts us in Kingman at 9pm or so depending on how many rest stops we have to make. I just want to go HOME!

Quick Update

2008-07-10T19:47:00.000-07:00

So, we left my parents this morning (thanks for all the good food, sleep and fun, Mom and Dad!) and drove to Lehi Utah. The kids are in the pool at the hotel, Tim is down there reading the paper, and I thought that I would get online awhile. I was able to get some internet at mom and dad's since someone in their neighborhood had unsecure wireless, but the signal was really weak and didn't allow much. I have pictures to post, but they are in my camera which is in the car. I am too lazy to go outside, so I will post pictures later!
We are on our way to Colorado (Gunnison tomorrow night and then Horn Creek on Saturday) and glad that the driving is over for this day.
Let's see.. we left off on the fourth. Well, the kids went fishing again and snagged another 20! So we cooked 20, and froze the other 23 to bring home and gave some to Grandma. After dinner, we decided to go watch the fire works. They are shot at the other end of the lake and if you go down there, you find yourself in a HUGE trafic jam coming back (only one way in and out of the resort, so you are in a 6 mile long line coming into the camp.) Anyway, we drove half way aroung the lake, pulled off and my brother scouted out a place to sit... we just had to jump a fence (ok, I am vertically challenged and climbing a 6 foot gate is not easy!), so we got all our stuff out of the car and just as we walked up to the gate, a guy comes and unlocks it. So Dad asked him if he minded us walking up and sitting on the hillside. He gave us the thumbs up and we had GREAT seats. We only had to climb the gate on the way out, as the guy had locked it back up behind us.
Saturday, we were just bumming around and Hannah said that she wanted to go up on the tram. I walked over to find out about tickets and they said they were having issues and were closed for the day. Here is the story.. 150 people were stranded on top.. really glad that we hadn't been more on the ball and gotten on the tram in the morning!http://www.wallowacountychieftain.info/main.asp?SectionID=9&SubSectionID=61&ArticleID=16341

We drove back to Mom and Dad's on Sunday (and said goodbye to my brother's family and my sister) and then kicked back at their house until this morning. I really enjoy sitting on my folk's patio and watching the humming birds and flowers. Very relaxing. So far this trip, I have read 6 books and slept in several mornings. GREAT relaxing time! The kids kept Dadad busy playing games, and Tim took them Golfing a few times!

I will try to update from Colorado at least once! Later.

Swimming, Deer, Eagles, Bumper Boats and Fish

2008-07-04T11:36:00.001-07:00

So, we are busy with lots of fun stuff. Here are some pictures.

Swimming in the lake... COLD, but fun!
We see lots of Deer.. they wander right through by the cabin. They are pretty tame and come up to get food. That is what happens when you are deer who have been in a state park protected from hunters for several generations! Their biggest predator is a 3 year old chasing them!

We walked down to get more pictures of the bald eagles. The parents were off somewhere, but we spotted their nest and got to see the babies.

We went to the bumper boats last night. The whole crew took over the place and had a great time!The big hit this week has been fishing. They went out the first morning and caught one lone trout (the 4 kids) and then the second day, they caught 5 among them. Then Tim took the girls out the 3rd day and they caught 16 between the 3 of them. Today, Dadad took the grandkids out(by himself , brave man!) and they caught 20 between the 4 of them. They caught more this vacation than on all the previous years put together! We are grilling half of them tonight and the other half is in the freezer to take home.

Another fun thing we did was go make smores at the day use area.Here is a picture of the 3 generations of Drexell's playing catch.. with Fletcher trying to join in.

Tonight we will go and watch the fireworks. Tomorrow we have miniature golf on the itinerary. We love Wallowa Lake!

Wallowa Lake

2008-07-02T12:28:00.000-07:00

We got to my parents house on Friday, June 27th. We enjoyed hanging out with my brother and his family. Then on Monday, we drove up to Wallowa Lake, our favorite spot. My dad had rented cabins for us all. So now we are hanging out in the mountains, enjoying the cousin interactions. We will be here over the 4th and then head back to Mom and Dad's on Sunday. Here are a few pictures. Here are the great grandkids with my Grandma.

Here are some pictures of Wallowa Lake.

These pictures are of a bald eagle. He was good enough to sit in the same place while I hiked around to get a closer view (I had to cross a stream to do it too!) I am going back in the morning tomorrow to get a better light. Hope he is still hanging around his nest.
This is the cabin that my parents and Tim and the girls and I are staying in. My brother and his family have one just across the lawn from us.

My Nephew, Fletcher, loves to pop "beeeg bubbles" and will ask you to blow big bubbles all day long.

The kids are out with Tim and my dad fishing this morning/afternoon. So I am just hanging out at the cabin looking at the beautiful view! More later...

Thursday

2008-06-26T22:34:00.001-07:00

So today we slept in then just lazed around the hotel. I think that Bekah spent from 9 am until 3pm in the pool! Then we walked to our other "Tahoe Tradition" and played miniature golf at the Kings Beach Golf course. We always play there (Tim is the same age as the course!). In fact, the last time we were in Tahoe 2 summers ago, on the last night, Bekah won a free game. We kept the coupon in our glove box in the car and pulled it out today to use! The sunset was bright red due to the smoke, and you still can't see the opposite shoreline, but we are having fun anyway. After golf, we go across the street for our other favorite Ice cream place and indulge in ice cream for dinner (its a TRADITION.. don't judge my parenting... Traditions are important! (o: )

We got back to the hotel and went down to the beach to see if Bekah could find some crawdads. No luck, but she had fun anyway. Tomorrow, we are up and out early and driving across Nevada. More later.

Vacation 2008

2008-06-25T17:07:00.000-07:00

We are on the road again! Yesterday, we packed up the van, left the dog at "Kiwi Camp" (our friends are pet sitting.. they have 2 dogs, so it is like Kiwi gets her own vacation with her friends!) and headed out. We left town about 2:30 and drove to Auburn, California. We planned for yesterday to be the packing and only driving a little day. So it was. We got to Roseville (just before Auburn) and stopped at the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner. We were HUNGRY, but then it WAS 8pm. Then we drove the little way to Auburn and checked in to the motel. We slept in this morning and left Auburn around 11:30. We got to Lake Tahoe at 1pm and stopped at "Fanny Bridge" before heading around the lake to our hotel in Kings Beach. It's called Fanny bridge because when you drive by you see everyone's fanny since they are looking over the edge to see the giant trout that live here. There is no fishing from the bridge and they sell fish food so you can feed them, these guys aren't stupid, they know a good spot to live when they see one! There are several large fires in California that are causing it to be super smokey. You can't see the south shore or the mountains around the lake. Here are the girls and Tim out in the water... normally, you would see the mountains behind that boat. Our hotel is right on the beach, so we can walk out of our room and right down to the lounge chair. I already got too much sun and had to come back to the room! We ended the day with one of our Tahoe traditions.. we went to Carnelian Bay for pizza, played miniature golf and then to the ice cream shop. Here are the girls at the golf course, standing by some beautiful lilac bushes.We will be here until Friday morning when we head across the lovely Nevada landscape to my parents house in Idaho.

Way to go Hannah!

2008-06-13T20:48:00.000-07:00

Well, She is in High School now! Today, Hannah graduated with her class at OJHS. She was beautiful, and so excited. The School board members give out the diplomas and Jim who coaches with Tim was able to give Hannah her diploma. I snapped the handshake picture, but missed the hug he gave her afterward. Very sweet. After graduation, we went to the Japanese restaurant and sat at the Tapan grill. The kids loved the "show" the chef put on (and the fire he started.. thought he was going to singe my eyebrows at one point!) So it's official, I am the mother of a high school student!

Two Crazy Moms...

2008-05-29T21:25:00.000-07:00

So, my bff Julie says to me a few weeks ago "we should go to Fresno to see Carrie Underwood, we need a girls trip". We looked for tickets and stumbled across some GREAT seats, so we bought them kind of spur of the moment like. We booked a hotel, arranged for our kids to be taken to school and picked up (thanks Greg, Tim and Nana!) and yesterday we hit the road. We stopped for Lunch in Paso and got to Fresno at 3 pm. Concert started at 7:30. We went to a scrapbook store, I went to Supercuts and got my hair cut (nothing drastic) and were off to see Carrie.

Our seats were in the front row at the end of the catwalk, so we got to see Carrie very up close and personal when she came out to the end, which was quite a bit. I think that I have been ruined for concerts in the future as I will probably never have seats like that again. We stayed the night, slept in (no kids to get to school), hit the road and were home by 2:30 this afternoon.

Here are some pictures of the concert:

At the Save mart Center in Fresno, you walk in from the street level and you are at the top of the stadium. We had to walk down the stairs to the end of the catwalk. We sat on the aisle in the front row.

If someone can teach me how to take self portraits that don't look so scary, let me know.

Josh Turner was our opening act... I really enjoyed his music.

Miss Carrie Underwood.. this girl is SERIOUSLY talented and So very pretty even up close!

Seriously, we were THIS close!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This was just a super fun 24 hours with my girl, Julie... we will remember this for a LONG time!

Meet Kiwi...

2008-04-27T17:02:00.000-07:00

our Italian Jackhuahua Spaniel. Thanks for your breed input... I really don't care what breed she is, but I want a catchy answer when people ask me what she is. So, that is our new answer...
so far, the response is good... they look thoughtfully and say "oh... she is really a cute one!"

Let's play "Name that Breed"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-04-10T18:38:00.000-07:00

Are you my Mother?????

So, my favorite pastime lately is trying to figure out what breed Kiwi is. Have you noticed that weird combination dogs are the latest rage? Used to be if your Lab got together with the neighbor's poodle, you would be appologizing and your kids would be outside the grocery store with a box of puppies handing them to anyone who was crazy enough to take the mutt! Now you can get $1500 for your labradoodle puppies! I am thinking that I may really have a valuable dog if I could just figure out what she is! Hahahah!

Kiwi strikes the "Snoopy Vulture" Pose on the back of our couch... maybe she is a cartoon beagle!

I did find out that you can do a DNA test that will tell you what breeds make up your dog... I don't know if I would believe the results, and I don't want to spend the $100 to do it, SO that is where you come in... I am conducting a non scientific poll (VERY NON!) At the end of this LONG post, you can comment and tell me what breeds you think make up my too cute doggie.

So, here is what we KNOW. Kiwi is a purebred dog, her mama is a dog and her daddy is a dog!Kiwi was born in mid to late November. When we got her she was 6-8 weeks old she weighed in at 3 lb 6 oz. She is now 5 months and weighs in at 7 pounds. She is all legs. At the SPCA Kiwi was there with her mama and 3 brothers. The mama looked like a spaniel mutt. One of the brothers was definitely a Jack Russell mix. One brother was a spanielish black and tan puppy. The other brother was a non-breed specific mutt.

One brother looked like this

Everyone always says that Kiwi is a Chihuahua mix.. no offense to the Chihuahua lovers in the crowd, but all I know about the Chihuahua is the Taco Bell commercials and bobble head dogs in cars. I just don't see the resemblance.

In all fairness, I looked for a Chihuahua picture that lookes a lot like Kiwi... I am just not admitting it... don't Chihuahua's shiver all the time?

A Jack Russell... she has that look, doesn't she?

Since one brother looked like a jack russell, and Kiwi has the markings of a JR, we figured the daddy was a Jack Russell... but then how would Chihuahua figure in? I went on a search of spaniel mix photos to find something that resembles the mama. This is the closest I found. This is what she looked like to some degree. She was more "homeless" looking and had at least one more breed mixed in.

Well Guess what, this picture is of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel/Jack Russell mix! So, maybe the Jack russell came from the mama. But we still don't know what else she is...

My dad was here visiting and said "she's built more like a race horse than a dog" which is very true... AND she runs like I have seen Greyhounds run...

This is an italian greyhound running....all legs off the ground, tail out, head up

These are Kiwi running... all feet off the ground, tail and head up.

But Greyhounds are way too big for this little dog.. at least I thought that until my friend said there were "Mini" greyhounds. They are Italian greyhounds and they look like this. They weigh in at 7 to 11 lbs.. so that is the right size.

Italian Greyhound puppy... looks kind of like our girl

Italian greyhound body style above... Kiwi below
I don't have pictures, but these two poses are ones that Kiwi strikes too.

She definitely has that long legged look and runs like that, but I don't think that they are very common and would infiltrate the Stray dog blood lines.

So, now it is your turn... WHAT BREEDS would you guess Kiwi is???? Leave your comments... this should be fun!

GO SPARTANS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-04-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

Hannah had a class meeting today for the new charter high school. Since she is part of the first class, they got to help chose the school colors and mascot. They had a 9am-1pm meet your classmates rally. They had narrowed down the choices to: red/black, red/gold, navy/white and the mascots to: cougar, spartan and falcon. They voted and they are now the SPARTANS and will be Navy and white. Hannah was happy about the mascot but the color was not the combo she voted for. Oh well, you learn in life to deal with what you are given. I told her that she wouldn't have been involved in the selection process at all at the other two schools she could have gone to. I am a bit bummed in the mascot.. the three high schools in town are "saints" "warriors"(think roman soldier) and "knights" seems to me they could have gone with and animal. But hey, it is their school and their mascot, so their choice it is.

Charter School News

2008-02-23T17:00:00.000-08:00

I haven't blogged in a while. The lottery day for the charter school was February 6th. There was no lottery for the High School because there were only 119 signed up for the 135 spots. So the people signed up at that time (Hannah included) are IN! Since then, they have filled the last spots.
We were very excited, but that left us with another quandary... what to do with Bekah.

We had signed her up for the K-8 part of the charter school, mainly to give Hannah an extra chance to get in the high school during the lottery (siblings were guaranteed a spot) But since Hannah was IN it made Bekah IN also. So now we need to decide if we want her to go. The K-8 will have 8 students per grade level, 3 grade levels in one class. It is going to be at a little "country" school about 8 miles from our house. We have always shied away from combo grade classes for Bekah because she isn't a great independent learner. So, we were kind of leaning toward NOT putting her in the charter school. But she is also a quiet student who gets lost in the 32 kid classroom.
I spoke with her 2nd grade teacher (we love her and value her opinion) and she thinks that this might be a GREAT opportunity for Bekah. We LOVE our current school, we love the jr. high that she would go to, this would remove her from both of those. She has friends who will be at the new school, so that isn't a big deal. We don't know who the teachers will be and the fact that you will have the same teacher multiple years makes that a BIG FACTOR!
So, I guess we will register her for the Charter school on Tuesday (the deadline to register, or they give her spot to the next person on the waiting list) and then wait to see who the teachers and principal will be. We can always change our minds later and continue where she is. I will keep you posted.

Superbowl XLII National Anthem Jordin Sparks

2008-02-04T16:40:00.001-08:00

I think that this is the BEST rendition of the National Anthem that I have ever heard!

I've been tagged...

2008-01-31T14:30:00.000-08:00

I sit here with my new pretty green laptop computer... home from work because Bekah is sick.. and I got tagged.

Here are the rules:
1. You have to post the rules before you give your answers.
2. You must list one fact about yourself beginning with each letter of your middle name. (If you don't have a middle name, use your maiden name).
3. After you are tagged, you need to update your blog with your middle name and your answers.
4. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and that they need to read your blog for details.)

L- Like to scrapbook
y- Young... I am very young..
n- Not a great housekeeper... I can't stay focused
n- never been to new york

I am going to tag: Parkie, AmyG, Sue and Paula

So, alot's been happening...

2008-01-27T13:16:00.000-08:00

Flat Kendall has been visiting from Alaska. She is a class project from my Mom's Cousin's granddaughter Kedall. They send the flat representation of themselves to someone, who then sends it on. They learn about geography (you send them a postcard from your location), culture (you send pictures of what you did with Kendall) and they help some schools in Africa (you send a book to one of the 3 schools in Africa) I need to send her on her way somewhere else. She went on a missions trip to Mexico with Hannah (and Hannah did take pictures, but I accidentally erased Hannah's memory card... I would KILL her if she did that to me! She was very gracious and forgave me after much much much remorse on my part) she spent Christmas with us and Kendall has met Kiwi! I don't think that I will be sending the picture of the dog EATING Kendall to Alaska!

This week we have seen mostly RAIN! We have gotten 6 1/2 inches of rain (and it is pouring again this evening.. so that number is climbing) this month. The average rainfall for January is 2 1/2 inches, so we are pretty saturated.

Poor Kiwi, she thinks that we are torturing her, making her go outside in the rain and WIND (more on that coming up) to go to the bathroom. When I open the door, she looks out, looks up at me and then tries to sneak back to her kennel!

We have settled into a routine, Kiwi and I. She sleeps in a kennel in our room. Our bedroom has a "hallway" from the office to the bedroom that goes past the bathroom and the door to the back yard... it's all tile, so we thought that with the tile, the door to the outside and the ability to gate it off, this would be her perfect hang out. So, when I get up in the morning, first thing I do is let the dog out to go potty. She goes, comes in for a treat, then I lock her in the bathroom with me while I get ready for work. Once I am ready, she goes out again to poop, then we are ready to wake up the girls. She loves this part... not so sure if the girls love it or not.

Then we play for a while as the girls get ready for school, then I gate her up in her "area" and head to work. After work, and before I pick up Bekah from school, I come home, let Kiwi out, and then we go get the kids. She loves riding in the car... although, she is getting to adventurous and walks around the van now as I drive (she used to stay in her bed in the seat) so I will be buying a harness to buckle her in. Then we all play with her, she cuddles with us on the couch, we have dinner and ignore her, and then when it is bed time, I say "Kennel" and she goes right in to go to sleep. She really is a smart little dog.

So that is our "normal" routine. But for the past few days, we have been having a little change up. The WIND has been incredible. The gusts were in excess of 40 mph. That with the rain saturated ground made for some interesting sights. This morning we saw many BIG trees down on our way to church. We lost power on Saturday evening around 9pm and it didn't come back on until 1am or so. Well, the last time I took Kiwi out.. by battery operated camping lantern since there was no light to flip on, it was too dark to see. This morning, when I got up... we trekked outside, and this is what I saw!

Then we came back in, I got ready for church.. normal day, right? Wrong! Kiwi gets out of her bed, and stands by the bathroom door, nose to the door... I think "she is telling me she needs to go out!" this is a first! She has never indicated a need to go out before! BUT because of the fence down, and my fierce desire NOT to be chasing my dog through the neighbor's yard in my robe, I decide that I need to get her leash. She follows me out to the kitchen.. the leash isn't there, I locate it on the dining room table, but then I can find the dog! She is not coming when I call, there is no noise, I am looking all over. When I finally find her, she is coming down the hallway and heads to her bed. NOW she has no desire to go out. Well I am sure you can figure out what that means! She already went... so now I have to search the house for her accident. (she seems to like Hannah's room) So I am HAPPY that she showed me she needed to go out, but I now know that she means NOW! So we are BOTH learning!

Revenge???

2008-01-12T22:55:00.000-08:00

SO, we have had a great first week with our puppy, Kiwi. She is a cute, loving, SMART little dog. We have had not one accident in the house... that is until today!!!! This morning, the patio door was open (because it was 70 degrees outside today...sorry to gloat!) and she actually went outside, unprompted and took care of business!!! I was so excited! Then later in the morning, the door was closed and she went to the door and waited until Hannah noticed and opened it for her. These were the first times that SHE initiated the outdoor adventure. We gave her extra love and praise for those times. THEN this afternoon, we gave her a bath.. we had to wait for 10 days past her surgery to bathe her... today was the day! She was NOT happy about the bath! Since then, she had 3 "accidents" in the house!!!! I am beginning to think that these are NOT accidents, but revenge for the BATH!!!!! I don't think that I will survive this puppy hood thing!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-01-05T10:13:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been an eventful 2008 for us so far! We made a trip over to Fresno to celebrate the new year with our friends the Hoffmans. The kids had fun staying up until almost 2am.. watching Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's Eve. My kids wanted to know why that "old guy who talks funny" is on the show. Poor Dick Clark... I wonder when they will decide it is time to let him retire?

Our other news begins a bit sooner... The girls have been BEGGING for a puppy for years now. Tim was just not going to go down that road. Well, the old softy finally relented. For Christmas, he gave them a dog bed and some dog food dishes... the instructions were to look for a puppy that would NEVER be too big for this little bed. SO we began to look. There were lots of puppies in the paper, but I have a hard time trying to figure out why a mutt that would have been given away outside a grocery store 20 years ago is now worth $500!!!!! Designer dogs my eye... your Pug and a poodle had a tryst and now you are selling Puggle puppies! Sheesh... so we also checked local shelters. LOTS of dogs, but no puppies. We wanted to get a puppy so the kids could go through the whole growing up period with the puppy.
Well, I checked pet finder.com and put in our address... not too many puppies with in 100 miles. BUT if I put in the Hoffman's zip code in Fresno, HUNDREDS of Puppies were listed. So we thought, while in Fresno for the week, we would look there.
Dawn and I decided to drive to the SPCA on New Years Day. They weren't answering the phone, but we thought that maybe they would be open. THEY WERE! But now I am there with no kids... what to do? I started taking pictures of puppies with my phone and sending them to Hannah! We saw TONS of Chiuaua mix puppies and lots of HOUND mix puppies. I wasn't fond of the look of most of the Chiuaua puppies.. buggy eyes. And I was afraid the hound mix puppies might get to big. I was getting a little discouraged, but the SPCA gal said, "try next door at the stray dog facility.. they may have some"
So we did. There were some cute big puppies, and then I come around the corner and Dawn is holding a cute little puppy.. she was TINY! There was a stray dog with a litter of pups. They had been held for the 7 days in order for an owner to claim them, but the 7 days had been up on the 29th and because of the holiday they hadn't been moved to the adoptable pens yet. There was just the one little female all the others were males. We had decided that we probably would take a female and avoid having a "leg lifer" in the house. So Dawn held on to the little girl puppy (there was a couple waiting for her to put the puppy down because they also only wanted a girl) while I took a picture and sent it to Hannah. Then I made a quick check on all the other pens to see what else there was... but this sweet little dog just out shined all the others. She is about 8weeks old they think. The mother they say is a Terrier Mix (I found out that they mostly guess either, chiuaua, terrier or Hound if they are not sure!) but she looked to me like she had some spaniel in her. She had the face and ears of a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, but obviously was only half or less.. One of the puppies had a wiry bushy face like a Jack Russel Terrier. So, we paid for the puppy to be adopted, spayed, and micro chipped. And left her there. They said that she would be spayed either Wednesday or Thursday and could come home the same day. We were planning on coming home on Thursday evening, so we thought that would be great. Well, Wednesday, she wasn't done... but they said she would be spayed first thing Thursday Morning. Thursday afternoon, I called, and they said that there had been no surgeries that morning because of an emergency. SO, she would be spayed in the afternoon and we could pick her up Friday morning... Well, the Hoffman's were gracious enough to let us stay one more night (the kids were elated to stay longer with their friends!) and we picked up Kiwi (the girls finally decided on a name) on Friday at 11:30 am. She is too cute and so far... knock on wood, she has not had one accident in the house. We decided to "kennel train" her so last night she slept in the little dog crate. She only whined for a minute and then settled down to sleep. She woke up at 1:30 am and I let her outside, where she tinkled and went back to the crate to sleep some more. She woke up at 8am and has been enjoying being part of our family! She is really cute, but I am beginning to wonder not if she will get to big for the bed, but if she will ever grow into it! Right now she only weighs 3.6 pounds!

Christmas at the Blethen's 2007

2007-12-26T17:05:00.001-08:00

We are going to see this house tonight!

How cute is this little boy????

2007-12-23T14:01:00.001-08:00

MY friend sent me this video on Youtube... I don't know who this little boy is, but oh my is he cute!

Straight No Chaser - 12 Days

2007-12-17T23:55:00.001-08:00

This is great! A must see this Christmas!

Keep On Loving You

2007-12-17T09:40:00.001-08:00

From my Senior year in High school...

Bee Gees - Midnight Special 1973

2007-12-17T09:27:00.001-08:00

So, last night I caught part of an infomercial about the Midnight Special, now on DVD!
What memories! We used to watch the Midnight special every week. Either at my house or Lisa's. There has never been another show like it.

Christmas With a Capital

2007-12-16T23:59:00.001-08:00

Great Video!

scary Elves!

2007-11-29T15:57:00.001-08:00

Check this out!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9638018433

and this one..

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1130573973

Down to two...

2007-11-15T07:29:00.000-08:00

So, we have pretty much ruled out the BIG public high school. I have been to several meetings about the charter school and a parent meeting about St. Joe.... This is what we are going to do.. PRAY. Along with that, I will turn in the application for Orcutt Academy today. Her getting in is dependent on a lottery system, so God can certainly close that door if he chooses. Then Hannah will also attend all of the Pre-St. Joe stuff. They have a day for her to come to school. They have a dance with the 8th and 9th graders to get to know each other. They have a night time walk around school and see the classrooms. She will take the entrance exam in January. The charter school lottery is in February and St. Joe acceptance letters go out in March. So we will attempt both schools and see what happens. Again, God can certainly close doors here. If both doors remain open, then we will still need to choose...

Here is what our Pro and con list boils down to now.

Orcutt Academy: Pro- Small, Free, No religion Classes, opportunity to be involved in the FIRST graduating class
Con- no track record, facility is pieced together, little opportunity for sports.

St. Joe: Pro- Small, feels like home to us, GREAT proven history, every sport offered, lots of clubs
Con- EXPENSIVE, Elitist attitude, religion classes (not a HORRIBLE thing, but not a pro either)

Right now, Hannah is saying she wants to go to Orcutt Academy. I don't know about any of her friends. So, now we wait...

eeny, meeny, miney, mo....

2007-11-07T16:09:00.000-08:00

So, Hannah is an eighth grader. That is stress enough... but WHERE will she go to High school???? THAT is the question of the year!
So, I am going to use my blog as a pros/cons place. I will write my pros and cons for the 3 choices. Hopefully it will help me to see it in writing. Please feel free to give any thoughts or advise... we need it all!!!!! Keep in mind, Hannah loves drama, music and such...

Pros-
Righetti HS-

Public (read FREE)
lots of activities and elective classes (lots of drama, choir, band, arts, etc)
most of H's friends will go here
lots of sports

St. Joseph-

Familiar (I used to teach there, Tim coaches football there... we know the faculty and admin.)
Small (650 students grades 9-12)
closed campus
very academic.
Lockers
Rich history of traditions
All the sports offered... big sports school... I think that they require students to participate on at least one team.

Orcutt Academy-

Public Charter (read FREE)
brand new (H's will be the first class... they get to set the traditions, chose the mascot, colors etc. First graduating class)
small 125 students per grade
closed campus
Very Academic
Supposed to offer band, choir, drama etc... we will see
Will incorporate the International Baccalaureate program... pretty inovative and rigorous higher level classes

Cons-
Righetti HS-

HUGE 2500 students grades 9-12
open campus (they can leave anytime)
easy to get "lost" in the system
some gangs
no dress code (NONE, you should see what some of those girls are wearing or should I say NOT wearing!)
you can get a good education but nobody is paying attention or pushing you
No lockers- you have to carry everything all day

St. Joe-

EXPENSIVE $7000 tuition plus books and everything else
time committment for parents (bingo, working games etc)
Cliquish and snooty (rich people's kids: kids getting brand new car for 16th birthday etc)
Strict dress code (girls have to wear collared shirts.. those are not easy to find, etc)
Religion Classes required (not that we mind them SO much, but we don't nessessarily want to pay for classes in Catholosism when we aren't Catholics)
No classes offered in Music, drama, etc.

Orcutt Academy-

NEW (I know that I said that was a pro, but they are also just working out the bugs... would the first class be a guniea pig class?)
pieced together campus (sharing with the Jr. High the first year at least... no estimate on when they would have their own facility)
Lottery to get in
Dress code is unwritten so I will put it here until we see
less offerings of sports and clubs etc in the first few years

So, that is what I have so far... I will continue updating as I think of things...

Halloween... and other stuff!

2007-11-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad always come down for a visit right around Halloween. The kids love having them around so they can see the costumes and everything. Bekah LOVES for Dadad to play games with her and for Mimi to do crafts with her. She gets things all ready for their visit, and practically has their time planned out from the moment they hit the front door. This year, I witnessed something that I never thought I would see... she got Dadad to play John Madden Football on the gamecube! So of course, I had to take a picture of Dadad playing video games...

This year, the girls carved pumpkins... no help from any adults again this year...

This is Hannah's masterpiece...

This is Bekah's Jack-O-Lantern...

Costumes this year were interesting... Hannah was going t0 be a pirate.. then a dead prom queen, then just a purple person... she finally decided on a "bad Fairy" she bought purple wings that were battery opperated and "flapped" and then put the rest together from what she owned. She did a pretty good job, I think.
Being an 8th grader, she didn't want to have anything to do with our festivities... she and her friends went Trick or Treating by themselves, so the only pictures that I have with her are the "before" shots... then I remembered that I needed pictures of the wings, so I got a shot while she was walking to the car!

As you can see, Bekah was a "Clone Trooper" from Star Wars... She found the costume and never looked back... I tried to talk her out of it, because I knew she wouldn't like wearing the mask... but she was determined to be a clone trooper... so, here she is...
We had the Ryver Family over for Chilidogs and went Trick or treating... here is the Whole crew.. Matthew Flores, Bekah, Austin and Andrew Ryver...

Our evening always winds up at the "Pumpkin Man's House" . A neighbor carves the most wonderful pumpkins.. about 20 each year. We have to go see them. (Hannah missed out this year... ) Here is Bekah's favorite of the year...

And here are some of the others...

And here is a picture of the Girls With Mimi and Dadad last night... They left early this morning to drive to Phoenix to see Aunt Dee.
The house seems very empty this morning... The kids don't have school today (a genius move on the school district's part, I must say.. they always schedule a teacher inservice day on November 1st.. that way, the teachers don't have to deal with the Overtired, sugar hangover kids!)

My Baby's growing up!

2007-10-31T08:02:00.000-07:00

Hannah got her hair cut last night... it is so cute, and yet grown up and sophisticated too!

I should have bought more...

2007-09-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

Man, am I a slacker when it comes to my blog!

School is underway. Hannah is enjoying being an 8th grader and being "upper class woman". She has some really great friends. Tonight, she and Sammy are at a drug free party, sponsored by several businesses in town, just for Jr. Highers. She has become the sleep over queen, and spends at least one night at someones house most weekends.
Bekah is a fourth grader, and so far this year has been 1000% better than the last one! Her teacher this year is a great man who is very soft spoken. (when I said to someone that he was quiet, Bekah said "he isn't quiet, he talks all day long!"... so we had to explain that I meant Soft spoken...) Last year her teacher was a yeller...so this is a good change for Bekah.

Football has started. So we spend fridays going to games. The kids reall enjoy it this year. And they spend the game time with their friends hanging out which means that I can enjoy the game too!

Soccer is underway and the girls are doing well. Today we got back the soccer pictures for Hannah. I never buy pictures because they are not usually great. We get 1 individual picture, one photo button, and one team picture with our registration, so that is all I usually need... well this year, Hannah's pictures are DARLING! I wish I had bought several... oh well, I guess that is what a scanner is for. Several of the parents are upset that the photo company chose this picture for the team picture... it isn't "Serious" enough or something... I think that it portrays this team very well! They are a bunch of goofballs and are having so much fun being on the same team, I LOVE the picture!

End of Summer.... bummer....

2007-08-21T18:54:00.001-07:00

So, summer is coming to an end at the Pettey household! We have started soccer practices and Football practices... the girls and I took a quick trip to our friends, the Hoffman's, in Fresno to swim in the pool...

We had loads of fun! The weather was warm but not extremely hot (low 100's).

Then Sunday evening, we headed to Pismo Beach... You know, we live so close but we have never stayed there as a family... so we decided to play tourist in our own neck of the woods. The girls LOVED being able to walk out of the hotel and down to the beach. We never moved the car, we walked a mile down the beach to our favorite chowder place, Splash Cafe, for dinner. We walked across the hotel's parking lot to Marie Calendars for breakfast, we ordered lunch from Marie Calendars and I walked over to get it... we had a great time. Bekah swam in the pool for hours! We walked on the beach and found these little bitty crabs and 3 unbroken sand dollars. We played in the waves... it was wonderful!! There is a HUGE brush fire that is just south east of us, that has been burning since July 4th... the smoke makes for some amazing sunsets!

We came back today and now have to get ready for school to start Thursday... sigh... I love summer. I am bummed that it is over.

2:26 am................

2007-08-11T02:25:00.000-07:00

So, here I sit, at the computer... sounds from the living room confirm that the teenage girls here for a sleepover aren't sleeping. Why do I sit here still? Thinking that I can outlast them? Thinking that I might hear a bit of their conversation and get a feel for my daughters friends? Thinking that if I go to sleep now, I will oversleep and not be ready when their parents show up tomorrow? I don't know why, but here I sit.

My daughter turned thirteen yesterday. I am the mother of a teenage girl. I am really NOT happy about that! NOT! She is already hormonal and hard to live with, now I am going to have to start letting her be... just a little... on her own. Maybe that is why I am sitting here. I am not fond of one of the friends that is here, and there are two others that I barely know (in fact, I find it interesting that neither family came in to meet us before leaving their daughter here to spend the night! I would never do that! What if we were somehow deranged?) and I am trying to get a sense if my daughter makes wise choices in her friends... 2 of the 5 girls she invited, I think are pretty trustworthy... but the jury is still out on the others.

I am wondering if they will help my daughter clean the living room before they leave... there is confetti and starburst candies and m&m's everywhere... I think they were having a "food fight" with candy!

My 9 year old wanted SO BADLY to be one of the big girls... she stayed up until 2, but is finally asleep... I will not be happy if those shrieking, giggly girls wake her up! She wants to be 13 also, but I am glad that she is still in single digits!

So, it is now 2:37, the lights are back on in the family room... they are being noisy... WHY did we agree to a sleepover???? Did she catch us at a weak moment?? Was I not really paying attention??? I did this 2 years ago and vowed NEVER to do it again... but, here I am!

Heaven help me... I just went out to get a glass of water, and there was talk of "bases" and I am sure no one out there plays softball! I am SO not ready for the teenage years!! I have to trust that I raised her this far to be a smart, sensible, modest girl. I have to trust, because I am not always going to be sitting in the other room listening... and I am not ready to lock her in a tower... not yet anyway!

Well, It is time for me to go to bed I think... I can't outlast them, but I can trust that she is who I think she is... someone who will NOT be talked into breaking the rules... someone with an ounce (or more) of sense... someone who will look me in the eye tomorrow and tell me what all happened while I slept.

Moments in time...

2007-08-06T20:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I have been challenged to record the next ten minutes of my life...
8:40pm- why would anyone want to know what I did for ten minutes? Really?
8:41pm- my head hurts! I have a sinus thing going on and the area behind my left eye is throbbing... it makes my eyes water... I wonder if the computer screen helps? hahaha
8:42pm- Hmmm... my husband will be walking in the door any minute... do I really want to be here on the computer? But I have to, I have 7 more minutes to go...
8:43pm- Why am I hungry? Maybe my sinus trouble has screwed up my hunger sensor in my brain... Or, maybe I just need ice cream...
8:44pm- Ok, so my life is pretty boring... did I tell you that we went up north to see Hannah's Birthmom Lauri this past weekend? Maybe I should blog about that, instead of my hunger pangs!
8:45pm- My house needs to be cleaned so that Hannah can have a sleepover party on Friday... why am I sitting here? It is like there are magnets in my rear that keep me from getting up... that and I have 5 more minutes to record!
8:46pm- Have you tried diet pepsi Jazz- Strawberries and cream? It is so good! The empty can on my computer tower can attest to that!
8:47pm- Bekah is out watching tv... the amazing thing is that she hasn't yelled for me to come and get her something or "watch this commercial cuz I want that toy" or anything... Hmmm... maybe I should go check on her!
8:48pm- wow, just two more minutes to go... Tim still isn't here, so that is good! I am going to go clean up the living room tonight... just as soon as I finish this blog post!
8:49pm- My head still hurts. It helps to close my left eye, but then my right eye starts to hurt...
8:50pm- well, there you have it, nothing earth shattering happens in my life! That is a good thing!

Ok, so that is over, let me share a bit of our weekend trip.
We went up north to visit Lauri, Cameron and Julie this weekend. Lauri is Hannah's birthmom, Cameron is Hannah's 14 year old half brother and Julie is Lauri's mom.
We all went on friday morning. We got to Julie's about 3:30pm. We had dinner with them all at Julie's house. Then Hannah, Lauri and Cameron went bowling. Tim, Bekah and I stayed and watched a movie with Julie. Then Hannah spent the night with Lauri and Cameron and we spent the night at Julie's house.
Saturday, we went swimming and I hit a scrapbook store. Then we drove home. It was a quick trip... but Hannah had requested some time to get to know Lauri a little bit better, and I think that was accomplished. Here is a picture of Hannah, Lauri and Cameron... remember, he is a year and 3 weeks older than Hannah...

It's a small world after all...

2007-06-14T13:55:00.000-07:00

Ok, so sorry that you have that song stuck in your head (what is that called.. an earworm?) but it fits my ramblings...
The internet... it's called the WORLD WIDE WEB... but really what it means to me is that I have friends that I chat with from all over the world. People who share my interests (ok, interest singular... scrapbooking) and gift of gab. I have sent cards to women that I have never met IRL (in real life, for those of you who are not acronym savvy) but who needs cheering up (illness, tired from kids, just life stuff). I know their faces, their kids' names, their husbands names and what they do... I KNOW these women, without ever having met. We laugh together, we give cyber hugs when we are in need, we offer assistance when we can. I guess it is sort of like the pen pal of my youth. Someone out there who I really can get to know, without seeing.
Yeah, I know that because we have never met, some people may not be all that they seem...and I won't let my daughters get online and "meet" people...but when they are grown, and can discern people, I hope that they can form lasting friendships with people from all walks of life... people who would never cross paths with them normally, but who we can learn much from. People like my girlfriends on the internet.

Childhood Friends...

2007-06-09T23:09:00.000-07:00

So I have been googling names of people I grew up with and went to college with... I am finding out lots of stuff! I got a college degree and then proceeded not to use it too much, but my friend Ron went on to get his Masters and Doctorate and is now the VP of a company in Portland and teaches at the University there. We used to hang out together trying to figure out Physics and Calc as freshmen at TVCC... I am so proud of him!
My friend, Lisa and I met in 7th grade...we were best buds in Jr. High and High school... she went on the get a PhD and teaches at a University. She studied Basque Dance. She was a beautiful dancer and I am sure she is just as graceful now. She taught me to say a sentence in Basque when we were in 7th grade... something like "shut up! Do you want a slap in the face?" I still pull it out.. at least what I REMEMBER it to be... to make my kids laugh, but I am sure that I am butchering that wonderful language everytime I say it! Anyway, Way to go LISA! You make me proud!
For the rest of you... beware... my googling is just getting started... I may run across your name soon!
Oh and by the way... if you google my name you will find out that unbeknown to even myself I am some sort of Health Safety Expert on the east coast!

I'm a BAD blogger...

2007-06-02T11:54:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it has been so long since I updated my blog! I have no excuse except for extreme business! It is graduation season, so my work load has increased dramatically. I find myself having a hard time being polite on the phone with customers who are panicky about getting their kid's cap and gown on time (well duh! They have been able to order since OCTOBER.. now you want to get a gown a week before graduation?!) My boss, Danny, says "their lack of planning does not constitute our emergency", but we do our best to get them what they need.
On the computer front, some of you know that I have had an issue with an external hard drive (long story short, I moved all our docs and pics and music over to it, and it died 3 days later!)... now I am trying to reinstall itunes and it keeps giving me a fatal error cuz it is pointing to the external drive that is no longer there! Maybe it is time for a whole new computer! Like I have that kind of money...
The kids have 2 more weeks of school... then we are home for a week and then on our way to Colorado. (Tim is speaking at Horn Creek Family Camp again) After Horn Creek, we head to Idaho for my parents 50th wedding anniversary. That means I have 3 weeks to lose 60 pounds... don't think that is gonna happen! It's not like I didn't know this event was coming, but I kept putting the diet off. Oh well. So, now you have been updated... I will try to get back to the DC trip pictures this week... really...

Procrastination...

2007-05-11T00:11:00.000-07:00

So, I left you all wondering what happened on the rest of the trip... I will get back to that in the next post.

Hannah is learning a valuable lesson about procrastination (not that I EVER procrastinate... yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) tonight. It seems that the past week when I have asked her if her homework was done and she said she didn't have any... well she did! A big ol' science report, due tomorrow... so she was up until past 11 tonight doing her report and she needs me to get her up at 6 in the morning to finish before school. On her way to bed she said "Mom, if I tell you when my reports or projects are due, could you push me to get them done, so I don't have to do it all in one night again?" I think she's learning... now if I could just get my act together and finish posting those pictures!

Illumination Tour- Wednesday night

2007-04-26T19:03:00.000-07:00

After dinner at the Old Post Office, we picked up our tour guide and started our Illumination tour. We started at the World War II Memorial. This memorial had two arch ways that represented the Pacific and the Atlantic theaters of the war. There were columns for each state of the union and then a pool in the center.

From this spot you could see both the Lincoln Memorial (starting to "illuminate" as the sun got lower)

And the Washington Monument... which we took some fun pictures of.

Next was the Jefferson Memorial

On our way back to the bus, I caught a glimpse of the Washington Monument, I dashed down to the water to take the picture, hoping that the bus didn't leave with out me. (Next camera I get will take a little better night time shots, but I think this turned out pretty good.)

Our next stop was the Lincoln Memorial. This was probably the highlight of the Entire trip for me. I was very moved by it. I was taking the picture below of the Gettysburg address, when music started... something like angels singing... it was the Battle Hymn of the Republic... at first I thought that it was recorded, but I turned around and there was a choir of high school students (obviously just touring, not really performing) singing. It made tears come to my eyes. SUCH a beautiful moment!

When you are standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, this is your view.

We walked over to the Korean War Memorial. This was really lovely, but I wish we had gone during the day. The pictures on the wall were cool. The tour guide said that these were not pictures of people who had died in the war specifically. They were just random pictures gathered. He said that sometimes a Korean War Veteran will find his picture up on the wall.

We headed for the White house. We only ever drove by the South lawn (never stopping, I tried every time to get a picture, but never succeeded), but this was up to the front of the house (OK, as close to the front as you can get).

We got back on the bus and headed to the Kennedy Center for the Preforming Arts. See the Oregon Flag you Oregonians? Thought of you at that moment. (Even you traitorous Idahoans!)

After leaving the Kennedy Center, we dropped our tour guide off and headed back to the hotel. In bed by 11, Breakfast at 6:45.. have to leave early to try the Capitol Building tour again...

Washington DC- Wednesday April 11

2007-04-23T20:44:00.000-07:00

Here we go, Washington DC!!!!!!! We drove into the city and got our first glimpse of the famous places in store for us. We passed the Pentagon.. I had NO idea that it was so close to major freeways! On 9-11, the plane would have come in right over all the cars. I can't imagine what that must have been like! We never stopped at the Pentagon, and I have a few just "ok" shots of it out of the bus window, so if you REALLY want to see it, let me know and I will email you a picture.

Our first stop this morning would be the Capitol building. You have to stand in line to get tickets to tour the Capitol. We waited in line for about 1 1/2 hours and they sold out before we got to the front. While we waited, we snapped some pictures.

Hannah and her friends. I really LOVE this picture. After much grumbling from the kids.. "We waited in line for nothing???", "That was stupid..." etc., we walked up the hill and went to the Library of Congress.

The kids may not have been excited, but I was BESIDE myself at the joy of seeing THE Library!

Let me say first in my defense of this picture, that I had already taken it, when I realized that it was not allowed...
A GUTENBERG BIBLE!!! I said, "Hannah, do you know what this is?" and she said, "Mom, its just a Bible... we have those at home." (OK, so the Page in me is coming out, she may not have said those exact words, but her sheer look of boredom expressed that sentiment) So, I explained the relevance of it to her, she was slightly more impressed, but not much. I, however, was thrilled! You can check out this link to see more about the Gutenberg Bible. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Bible
I must say that the inside of the Library of Congress is perhaps the most beautiful building I have ever been in. These pictures just don't do it justice. You can't take a picture of a massive room like this and get the full effect. This is the great hall.

This is the ceiling of the 2nd floor hallway (which you see from the great hall). Really this is a STUNNING building. If we could have spent more time in any of the buildings we saw, this would be my choice. I could have spent hours in it.

Our next stop was the Supreme Court building (next door to the LOC), we actually ate lunch in the basement. This building was also impressive, but very "cold" feeling. We got to go into the court room, and they told us about the way things are done. It was interesting.

This is the ceiling of one of the hallways (actually, I guess it is the main hallway leading from the front steps to the courtroom itself) I noticed this flower motif, in several buildings. I thought it was pretty.
When we left the Supreme Court building, we are pretty sure we saw President Bush's motorcade. We had seen some other "short" motorcades and were told they were not the President, that we would "know" when we saw a Presidential motorcade. So this motorcade, was about 10 motorcycles, and 10 black SUV's long and the back SUV had its back open so the secret service to fire if needed. (that is how it was explained to us)

Next we walked down Constitution Avenue to the National Archives. Again, I was beside myself at the thrill of seeing what was inside! (For those who are interested, the movie "National Treasure" was NOT filmed in the building.)
We saw the Magna Carta, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, The Gettysburg Address, just an amazing assortment of documents. They had a room that had things from Presidents' schooling (report cards etc), and a room of letters sent to the Presidents' (there was a letter to FDR or Eisenhower maybe, from Fidel Castro when he was a kid... he asked for a $10 bill, because he had never seen one before...) It was a fascinating building.
After we finished there, we went to the Old Post Office for dinner (the Old Post Office is now a mall). We were looking forward to our "Illumination Tour" after Dinner, my next post will have all those pictures, but I didn't want to overwhelm you by having it all in one post!

Day 3- Yorktown and Monticello

2007-04-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

April 10- We started the day at Yorktown. This is the place of the last battle (or the last important battle.. or something. I think Cornwallis surrendered here) of the revolutionary war.
At Yorktown, they have a farm, set up like the 1770's, and a military post. The farm had some interesting things. We found out that they had a house, and they had a kitchen or "cookhouse" separate from the house. This is so they didn't have to live with the smoky smells all day. They showed us how they lived. At this point I must admit, I was not paying too much attention. I spent the tour outside photographing a turkey. He fascinated me. I am not sure why.. I have seen turkeys before. I just took about 10 pictures of him. I did snap back to pay attention to the tour guide as she told us how they made linen from flax. Did you know that it takes an acre of flax to make one set of linen sheets? No wonder linen is expensive!
The military post was a bit more interesting. They had a bunch of pup tents set up. They had 6 people go inside. They were very cramped standing there in the tent. Then the guide said, this is how many people were assigned to each tent. MAN! No wonder sickness was an issue for soldiers then. If your tent mate was sick then you were sure to get sick too. The commander's tent was a nice roomy tent about 20x20. It slept just the commander. Had a desk, table, bed, Chandelier type candle... I think he was a little spoiled compared to his men!

Next we boarded the bus on our way to Monticello. This was about a 2 1/2 hour trip. (did I mention that the bus had 20 inch flat screen tv's all the way back?? We did get to watch a few good movies.. mixed in with a few teenybopper movies, like high school musical, blech) Anyhoo... this picture is of Hannah and her friends by yet another Dogwood tree...did I mention that I REALLY like Dogwood trees?
And I REALLY LOVE the pink Dogwood trees!!!!!
So, here we are at Monticello. Tim wanted me to have a picture taken with both Hannah and I, so here I obliged... The lighting was good, you can't see my flaws! Anyway, this was a wonderful place. I was in awe of the buildings here. I can't imagine being that well to do!

I loved the grounds. Full of flowers and trees. I could imagine spending time on the porch here and reading my book and sipping iced tea...

And one more shot of Hannah with the house in the background. After the tour, we got back on the bus, headed for a pizza hut in Charlottsville, had dinner, and then drove the rest of the way to the hotel in Springfield, VA which was our home for the next 4 nights.

Day 2- Jamestown and Williamsburg

2007-04-21T13:52:00.000-07:00

Monday- April 9th. We started out at Jamestown. Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the New World. We took a tour of all the village settings (docks, Indian village, settlement) and the museum. Here are some highlight pictures:

I was pretty shocked at how small the ships were. I can't imagine coming across the ocean in this! (and this is the BIGGEST of the 3 ships!) Also, we were told that the passengers were essentially treated like cargo, never coming up to the deck of the ship, not being able to get out and walk around, etc. I don't think that I would have had it in me to be a settler in the new world!

The buildings are made in the old English style. Mud and wood. In England, there was little wood to be used, so they used the Mud style. In the new world, they still used the mud and wood style, not because they were lacking wood, there was PLENTY of wood here, but because this is what they knew how to build!

I made Hannah pose with the dogwood tree. I LOVE dogwood trees, we had one in our front lawn in Portland. I wonder if Dogwood would grow in Santa Maria?

After lunch we headed to Williamsburg. I had some trouble with Hannah on the bus, but they had a great tool for me to use as soon as we got off the bus in Williamsburg! I didn't let them nail her ear to the stocks, like they would have done in the past, but I did make her suffer through yet another picture!

Williamsburg is a town where people actually still live, but they block off the streets to autos from 8 am to 10 pm, so if you live in one of the 125 houses occupied in Colonial Williamsburg, you have to walk during the day! Or you can take one of these, but of course you need to pay AND make reservations, so that might not be too convenient to get to the store.

With no auto traffic and buildings like this, it is easy to imagine how Colonial residents of Williamsburg lived. It also helps that there are lots of people dressed in Colonial garb, to give you the "real" experience.
There are people who are dressed up, but from our time, and there are people who are "actual colonial residents". If you should strike up a conversation with one of these residents, they may stop you and say "pardon me, but what is this "dude" that you are speaking of? I have not heard that term before." Or they may ignore you all together if you don't address them in a language that they would recognize.

Hannah bought a hat (she HAD to have it.. although a few days later she confessed that she may never wear it again.. we decided that she could hang it on her wall.) and of course I made her pose for a picture!
After dinner, we took a "Lantern tour" of the town. Each leg of the trip, the guide would let someone else carry the lantern.. well you KNOW that Hannah wanted to do that! And she made it happen!
We had another great day, it was long, but very fun. We got back to the hotel at about 10pm.. off to bed, breakfast is at 7am!

Isn't she cute???!!!!

2007-04-20T08:24:00.000-07:00

A break from our trip pictures to bring you this cute picture of Bekah, age 3. This is a scan of a polaroid picture snapped on Mother's day 2001 (a gift from her, a Sunday School craft). It has been on my refrigerator ever since. As I was opening the door today, I thought, "I need to scan that or it will be too late someday"... so I did. Now I am sharing it with you.

Tales of our Travels... Day One.

2007-04-19T15:44:00.000-07:00

So, we left Santa Maria, at 4:30pm on Saturday, April 7th. We got on a tour bus (we were bus ONE of the two.. we were on the FUN bus!) and headed to LAX. We got about 30 minutes from home when the bus driver pulled to the side of the road and we waited for bus 2 to catch up, because it was "acting funny". We sat there for about 10 minutes and then turned around and headed back to find bus 2. So now we have been gone for an hour and are still only 20 miles from home! Quite a start.

We got to LAX and went through the first of many security screenings on our trip. Then got on our plane at 10:50pm and flew to Baltimore.

We arrived in Baltimore at 6:30 am. They let us change clothes and freshen up in the airport. After picking up our bags and making sure everyone was where they were supposed to be (the joy of traveling with 75 people... keeping track of you buddy group!), we got on the buses and headed to breakfast. Bus ONE had the best driver, Fred. He was really fun all week, and I can't tell you how many times I thought to myself, "there is NO WAY, this bus will go there!" and yet Fred managed to get it there!

We had breakfast before heading to our first tour. Old Annapolis.

Our tour guide, dressed in colonial garb, took us to the Capitol building (once the capitol of the united states) and showed us where George Washington resigned his military commission to return home after the war.
The guide was well versed on architecture, able to tell us "georgian" designs and such. But if you asked him what that blooming tree was, his reply was always "I'm not sure."
Then we walked down to the Naval Acadamy. Being Easter sunday, we couldn't go into the beautiful chapel (which has the tomb of John Paul Jones under it) because they were having services.
We did however get to walk past it and learn all about the Naval Academy (including the fact that ALL of the students live under one roof... they only have one HUGE dorm)
The midshipmen were getting ready to host an Easter egg hunt, so they were out in the lawns throwing colored eggs around...
You don't see THIS everyday at the Naval Academy!!!!
After a stop at the gift shop, we boarded the bus to lunch at Fudruckers. Then we got back on the bus and drove to Williamsburg, Virginia. It took about 3 hours. We got to the Williamsburg area around 6 pm and had dinner. Then checked into the hotel and went to bed! This was a LONG day!

Getting ready for DC!!!!!!!!

2007-04-05T07:41:00.000-07:00

Ok, so how is a California girl supposed to pack for a trip to DC in April??? I go to weather.com and check out the forecast... 50 degree high on Sunday (the day we arrive)... warming up to maybe 68 degrees and raining on Wednesday... back down to the low 50's toward the end of the week!
I can only have one suitcase and it has to weigh less than 50lbs! I don't even know where to begin... I guess my capri's and sandles are not practical...I will let you know how this turns out later!

Does anyone know where this came from???

2007-03-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

I have a cute test tube rack that someone gave me. I don't remember who or when. I know that I finally found a great use for it, and now my friends all want one too. So if you know where it came from or who made it, let me know!

Welcome to the new and improved blog!

2007-03-21T01:06:00.000-07:00

So this has taken me a few days, but I have transferred all my old posts and comments over to this new blog.
I have been busy playing with the colors and sizes and am almost to the point that I will say it is done.
What do you think? J.

CUTIE PATOOTIE!!!!!!!!!

2007-03-02T22:35:00.000-08:00

Look at my little BABY!!!! This was when Hannah was about 6 months old (maybe 7). She was SO cute! Look at the little "dent" in her chin... she still has that.
It is so hard to believe that she is almost 13! We leave in a few weeks on an educational tour of Washington DC! My little Baby is growing up!

March 02, 2007 | Permalink
Comments
What a cutie! I love all the old pictures you've been posting. Especially the hair! I had that too and thought it was sooo cute!

Tiffany

Posted by: Tiffany Hopkins | March 03, 2007 at 06:59 PM

she's adorable!! Isn't it amazing how fast they grow!!

Posted by: Jeanne | March 14, 2007 at 03:18 PM

The Dining room table

2007-02-28T22:32:00.000-08:00

The dining room table... there was much time spent around it. I don't know if we kids spent much time there.. we were always dying to be excused. On big family dinner days, we may have eaten in another room too.. this room was a bit cramped. This picture is of Granddad, Grandpa and Grandma. I don't know if this was a holiday, but you can tell that mom was cooking, because the meal is over and there is STILL enough to feed an army... she never makes small servings.. I inherited this and we ALWAYS have leftovers! And remember that wall paper??? This table is now in my dining room. And I love it when Mom and Dad are visiting and the kids beg to stay around the table and play board games.

February 28, 2007 | Permalink

comments
I think that this wasn't a REAL holiday, like Thanksgiving or Christmas or Easter....because I don't have the Noritake china out, with the wreaths of roses....I DO, however, have the footed glasses out. Who knows? but I think the 'occasion' was the visit of Skip and Sharon Caligan, my cousin and her family down from Soldatna, AK. I think that's Sharon's arm in the lower corner of the picture. If it's not THEM, then it's Uncle Duane and Aunt Jan, from Whitefish, MT. Whenever, we were ALL much younger. I think that the dining room may have been small, but I fed 15 people in there the first Christmas we lived there...both sets of parents, my grandparents, the Andersons and all of us...we just butted another folding table up to the dining room table (it was before the round oak one...it was a grey "marble" chrome and plastic monstrosity, with the gold high backed chairs, remember?)and extended it out into the living room. Thank heavens for hardwood floors....we could scoot things around with no problem at all. I do remember that getting everyone seated was a science, and if you were one of the unlucky ones back against the wall, once you got seated, you'd better not have to get up and go anywhere soon, because the whole assemblage would have to get up, pull out the table and wait patiently while you were....busy....in the bathroom, usually.
That wallpaper was a little loud, but it was practically indestructable, and would be on the wall YET if we hadn't gotten tired of it about 8 years into its' life. The next one was a deep mauve with teeny little pink nosegays, remember it? The first wallpaper was hung by Grandad Barnes...but by the time we hung the mauve stuff, I had gotten up enough courage to hang it myself, and did a pretty decent job, if I do say so myself!

Posted by: Mom | March 07, 2007 at 07:36 PM

??????

2007-02-27T22:30:00.000-08:00

This will be a quick post... just one question...

What is with the HAIR??? Was this ever a style? Was this just the curse of a bad hair cut? This definitely should be in the "What was she thinking?!!" category!

February 27, 2007 | Permalink

High School Graduation 1981

2007-02-26T22:26:00.000-08:00

WOW!!! Look how young I was... well 18.. duh! High School Graduation! I think it was May 23rd (or there abouts..) we didn't go to school into June like my kids do. We were out before Memorial Day, and seniors, well they got to graduate a week before that! This is a picture of me when I was still taller than my little brother, Drex. He would overtake me that summer probably... thinking about that, he would have been 12 1/2??? Hey, Drex! Hannah is 12 1/2 and she TOWERS over me!!! You were a shrimp!

Anyhoo, back to the graduation. I had chosen Michael to be my "walking partner" in the ceremony... he came to the ceremony SMASHED! I had to hold all 6ft. 2 inches of him up the entire way DOWN the grandstands and back up after the ceremony... I was NOT pleased. He thought it was pretty darn funny. Ahh... but I loved him... not like romantically, but he was one of my best friends, so I didn't pitch too much of a fit about it.

I also remember that later that day, I went to the Endicott's house to swim and that was maybe the first time that most of my friends had seen me without platform shoes... they didn't realize how short I really was until then. I even wore speca's (Nat, how do you spell those shoes?) with shorts in the summer!

Later in the evening, we went to the Senior Party at TVCC... Monte Carlo night... that was a blast! I had some of the best friends a kid could have. Kim, Lisa, Chris, Steph, Jay, Mike, Brad... we had some great times. I hope that as my kids get into the high school age (only a year and a half away for Hannah!) that they have friends to hang with that are good kids who don't get into the party scene like I had (well, except for Mike...)

February 26, 2007 | Permalink

Comments
I am SO enjoying these pictures! Have mom and dad taken a look at these yet? I figured mom would have some pretty funny comebacks for all the confessing you're doing here!

I guess I didn't come home for your graduation? I know I was there for Drexell's. I must not have been able to get away for some reason. I think I was in Salem by then. Wonder what was up?

The shoes are "Sibicas" and they still make them - looking much like they did in the 70s and early 80s! Other platforms we wore were Cherokees (they were a gum wedge that was super comfortable!). I also had some bright blue suede clogs with a cork wedge and a pair of cool wedge sandals that had a hole cut out through the middle of the heel. Wish I'd kept all those shoes now. I see a lot of shoes in the store that look like them now.

Looks like you also have the requisite "wings" on your hair in this picture. I remember getting my long hair cut for the first time when I was 15. I got it cut at the salon that was in Keith O'Brien's when it was at the mall. Do you remember that? Anyway, I had very prominent "wings" on each side of my head and as I sat in class (can't remember which) Craig Yunt (who I had a big crush on - he had a big red AFRO!) would stick his fingers through the middle of them and go "choo choo!" like a train. Drove me nuts.

This is fun - keep it up! - Nat

Posted by: Nat - Your graduation | February 27, 2007 at 12:21 PM

It was awful big of me to dress up for the occasion of this photo. I will say that I'm very proud of that shirt. Today, my favorite T-shirt hanging in my closet is a Royals T-shirt. In 1981, my other favorite T-shirt was an bright orange Oregon State shirt. But then, childish attitudes are to be outgrown, aren't they?

As for my height, I will not say that I was near as tall as Hannah at this age, but chances are that you are wearing those huge, white platform shoes at this very moment and I am, from the looks of it, barefoot and not long awake. Not to mention, I'm standing in a hole. I retain, somewhere deep in my repressed memory, a three dimenssional map of that lawn and every divot, crater, worm hole and tree root therein. If I visit this painful spot in my pshyche, I seem to recall a large deprssion in the area which I am standing, approximately eight feet southwest of the western most tree of the pair of evergreens in that corner of the lawn. My wife often asks me where my aversion to yard work comes from. After blacking out for a moment, I have a vision of pushing a Briggs and Straton motor mounted on a rusty cage of what used to be a Craftsman mower deck through three inches of eastern Oregon dust, the same dust mind you that choked the wagon riding pioneers one hundred years before, trying to reach a three inch patch of green grass that insists on sprouting itself immediately beside a Yucca plant that has no earthly reason for being rooted in this inhospitable dust, and shearing off half of the pulpy green yucca leaves while the ancient motor chokes and gasps its last, and I still have most of the yard to finish.

Ah, memories. - Drex

Posted by: Drex | February 28, 2007 at 09:59 AM

Maynard

2007-02-21T20:43:00.000-08:00

This is my first car... Maynard.. did anyone else name a car? My whole set of friends had names for their cars.. is that just weird? Please tell me that we were not the only ones...

Ok, so Maynard was a 1965 Mustang. We drove down to Mt. Home to look at it. Dad had seen the ad in the paper in the morning and that night after work, we drove down to see it. I think we got to Mt. Home about 8:30pm.. it was dark. The woman was only asking $500 for the Mustang, so we knew there had to be some problems with it. Well, YEAH.. major problem, the driver's seat wouldn't stay in the "locked and upright" position. It laid down FLAT against the back seat... and it ran pretty rough, but it was a MUSTANG!!! A '65 MUSTANG! We talked her down to $450 and drove off with "Maynard". Now, Mt. Home is almost 100 miles from home, SO, I had to drive all the way home not leaning back! That was painful let me tell you. We fixed the seat first thing...So, I was the proud owner of a car... what a difference that made in my life! I could tool around town..FREEDOM!!!

Did you grow up where people cruised? We had a cruise route, up and down 4th Avenue... Turning around at the mall and Dairy Queen. Every "group" had their own "hang out" parking lot. And then you cruised up and down the street to see the other people hanging out. Maynard was a Friday night fixture on 4th avenue.

Maynard also gave MANY rides to lunch. We once had about 12 people crammed into the car to drive to Taco Time for lunch.

Maynard had a tricky battery/starter/alternator problem... I don't know what was wrong, but 4 out of 5 school days, you would find me with the hood up, banging around with a hammer, getting back in the car and starting it up.

In the winter, I was dug out of many a snowbank by kind neighbor men. Maynard didn't have much traction... or I didn't have very good "snow skills"... its unclear which problem was the culprit. But the time Mr. Trees pulled me UP the hill with his tractor accounts for the warped front bumper, if you were curious, Dad.

I also am responsible for the dent on the front right fender... I don't remember what happened, just that I was afraid for my life that Dad would see it as soon as he came home. Maybe Maynard was beat up enough that he didn't notice, but I don't remember him ever asking.

As long and I am on that subject...Dad.. avert your eyes... Are you still looking? STOP reading...

I was stopped at least 3 times by the police, but never given a ticket... I guess the look of pure terror and tears at the prospect of bringing home a ticket made them take pity on me.

Maynard also made a few trips to Boise...shopping... during school... I don't know how he got down there without me, since I was a "perfect child" and wouldn't DREAM of skipping school.

I was at church the other day and someone had the most beautiful red Mustang fastback in the parking lot... It made me think of Maynard... Maybe when I am done with the Mom/Chauffeur stage of my life, I can trade my mini van in for another 'Stang.

February 21, 2007 | Permalink

Comments
MY first car was a '68 Dodge Dart which was aptly named the "Tan Mother." The whole family went after work one evening to Boise to buy it. It was in pristine condition and I think it only cost $400. I remember that I actually pitched in some money to buy it - maybe a couple hundred bucks? I was awash in earnings from being a Karmelkorn girl at the mall part time.

It was tan (well, DUH) with tan vinyl seats. She had all sorts of silver/chrome-like trim. It had AIR CONDITIONING if you can believe it. It was a unit that was installed after the factory - it was a big long black thin unit under the dash. It actually worked pretty well. It would be a very long time until I owned another car with A/C.

It also had an 8-TRACK PLAYER in it! Sweeeeet!

When we bought it, the body was perfectly staight - no dings or scratches (something Dad likes in his used cars - with the possible exception of Maynard, which apparently blinded him with his Ford pedigree). But by the time Tan Mother was traded in/sold (don't remember which), she was kind of beat up.

The front grill was especially affected by my driving. Back then, I actually DROVE between a couple of my classes on the TVCC campus. In particular, going from the Weiss (sp?) Building up to the gym complex up the hill.

I was always running late and so would virtually SKID into the gravel parking lot at the gym. Well, there were these really big log posts that held a heavy metal chain along the sidewalk and you just wouldn't BELIEVE how many times I came skidding into that parking lot and ended up bumping into one of those posts!!

Anyway, after a couple years, the front grill was bent into some sort of looney "smile." It actually looked like the car was smiling - people would tell me that as they saw me coming down the road. Poor car.

Tan Mother also made trips to Caldwell for the Sizzler Salad Bar during lunch and perhaps Boise a time or two. It was also stuffed full of girls a few times - I think the record was something like 14. And I think I only got stopped once in that car - Mom and Dad know the whole story there (it was when it was snowy and I was going to a basketball game in Nyssa and I slid through the stop sign at the bottom of the hill and got stopped by our neighbor who was a state cop. I was so upset, I went back home and tearfully confessed. They just told me to go ahead and go to the game!).

My next car was a '74 Plymouth Duster - red fastback with a big white stripe. It looked a little like a Starsky and Hutch car but wasn't the right type of car. I drove that going to TVCC and OSU. I had that until I bought a little red 200SX in my early 20's. Neither of those cars had names, though.

At some point in high school, I got to drive Dad's old '58 two-tone pink Dodge that Uncle Duane is now restoring in Montana. I rear-ended a neighbor's brand-new pickup dragging main one evening - right in front of the line waiting to get into the Pix movie theater! I was so embarassed. That was before cell phones (LOOOOOONG before) and I remember going to the ticket window and begging to use the phone.

It recovered from that incident, only to "blow up" in the homecoming serpentine on 4th Avenue. Then it went up to the barn where it languished for more than 20 years before being rescued by Uncle Duane.

Ah car memories - thanks for sharing!! - Love, Nat

Posted by: Nat - MY car memories | February 26, 2007 at 01:08 PM

Christmas 1982?

2007-02-20T20:41:00.000-08:00

This is another old picture that I came across. It is my family (dad's side) all together for Christmas in Coeur d'A lene, Idaho. My cousin Laura and her husband and Daughter Amy lived there for a few years and we went to their house for the holidays. I am sure that there was another "better" picture, but this is the one that I found. My Aunt Dee and Uncle Frank, and my cousin Russ were visiting from Kansas (I am not sure about Russ, he may have flown in from somewhere else.. maybe he was in the Army at this point), My Grammie and Grandad were there, along with Mom, Dad, Nat, Drex and myself. We all look pretty serious in the photo, but then Grammie didn't like photos of people smiling (not sure why, just the way it was then I guess), so this is a GREAT photo by those standards! I really don't remember much of that trip. I think that we all stayed at the house, but that is ALOT of people, so maybe some of us stayed in a hotel. I am not even sure what year this is. Maybe 1981 or 1982. I don't think that everyone was together again until I was married and living in Portland. We had some family portraits taken then. We won't all be together again until heaven, since Grammie, Grandad, and Uncle Frank have all gone on ahead of us. So, that is it, some vague memories of this particular trip, but lots of memories of the people in the photo.

Things like-

Uncle Frank trying to get my mom to see a Cardinal when we were in Arkansas. (He was teasing her, and kept saying he heard one, and she would run outside to look for it!)

Grandad- holding my hand and walking through the campground at Wallowa Lake (he had HUGE hands! The size gloves he bought were GIANT.. no lie.. they said Giant!)

Grammie- getting dinner on the table and showing me how to rice potatoes (she was a phenomenal cook... I didn't inherit that at all!)

Aunt Dee- giving me a hair cut when I was 12.. I don't know if Dad ever forgave her for that.. I had REALLY long hair and she cut it SHORT.

Laura- I remember visiting her in a tiny apartment in Boise I think (and I think it was a basement apartment, but I am not sure about that)- Laura was the glamorous cousin that I wanted to grow up to be.

I am so glad that my family saw the value in getting together. Spending time with each other. I am a better person for spending moments with all of these people.

I know that I miss big family holiday gatherings! Maybe I can talk everyone into coming down here some year.

February 20, 2007 | Permalink

Comments
I don't remember much of that Christmas either. The only thing I have to say is that this picture shows the only time in my adult life when my hair was it's NATURAL COLOR (I'm behind Janette apparently holding a cat).

I actually flew to that Christmas. I felt so grown up.

I remember it was very snowy and very beautiful. I also remember shopping and buying an outrageous white rabbit fur coat on that trip! Oh, I thought I was the pincale of high fashion!! I only wore that coat a few times - it shed so bad that I could barely breath when I had it on. White hair was EVERYWHERE.

I hope Drexell looks at this - he's so young! And look at Dad's beard!

Yes, I certainly miss family Sundays at Grammie and Grandad's. Wish we had something like that going on these days, but we're too far apart!

Thanks for sharing - Nat

Posted by: Nat - Cour d'Alene Christmas | February 26, 2007 at 01:12 PM

This was the Christmas of 1982 and we all stayed at the house, we had a basement with a full family room and all of the Drexell Barnes stayed down there and Russ slept on a couch and I think Drexell David slept on the floor the rest of us where upstairs. Amy had a water bed and Mom and Frank slept there, I can't imagine that now and Grammie and Granddad had the spare bedroom - Amy slept in our room - one big happy family. I remember how picture perfect that Christmas was with the setting and the snow. Natalie is holding Mom and Frank's dog I think her name was Tinkerbell we had a big black cat named Coalie but he was three times the size of that dog. There were also 3 other dogs in the house our two and Mom sitll had Taffy. It's fun to look at how much we changed - Leroye still has the beard but it is snow white now....It was basement apartment in Boise by the way - fun to look back hopefully we will make more memories and laughs in the future. Laura

Posted by: LAURA OLSON | March 01, 2007 at 07:54 AM

Grandpa

2007-02-18T20:37:00.000-08:00

So I was cleaning out a cabinet, and there was a box full of old pictures... I think that I will scan one a day for this week and tell you about it. I know, not too interesting, but these pictures really brought some memories flooding back to me.

This is a picture of my Grandpa, Clarence Page. I think that this was taken when I was about 20, so that would be 24 years ago (gasp!). I remember taking this picture and thinking that I wanted to always remember my grandpa this way. Fishing... perfect stream... beat-up hat...just before sunset.

My Grandpa was quite a character. He loved everything about the outdoors. Fishing, hunting, camping, if it was out in the wild, he wanted to be there! He had a myriad of jobs during his life and could tell you facts from almost any subject you wanted to know about. He loved reading (maybe that is where I got my love of books... well, I got that from my mom, his daughter.. close enough) and read every western he could get his hands on. He loved Louis L'more (sp?) books. My grandpa had the greatest nicknames for us kids. He would hug you and call you "knot head" or "rotten kid" or some other term of endearment (I am sure that all your grandpa's used the same ones.) Grandpa was a master story teller... We joke about the Page family rule.. "If you are going to tell a story, Make it BIG". My Mom also got that from Grandpa. My grandpa and grandma never had much money. But they sure enjoyed life. We got to celebrate their 50th anniversary before he got too sick. He developed Alzheimer's about when Hannah was born (actually a little before maybe) and we lost the vibrant person he was, long before he went to be with his Savior. I miss my grandpa.. I think that this picture shows what he spends his time in Heaven doing. Fishing.. perfect stream.. beat-up hat...just before sunset... I can't wait to see him there and listen to his latest story.

February 18, 2007 | Permalink

Comments
Thanks for sharing this great picture! It is the quintessential Grandpa Page. White t-shirt and jeans - those glasses that he'd had since the 50s or 60s (they actually came back in style for a while there in the 80s).

What a great walk down memory lane. I sure miss him, Grammie and Grandad. Looking forward to seeing them again. - Nat

Posted by: Nat - Grandpa | February 26, 2007 at 01:14 PM

Honeybun, those shoes were
"Sbicca", and they were right up there with Cherokees, as far as you gals were concerned!
In fact, I still have TWO pair of them out in the storage shed! We will dig them out this summer, okay?
And the picture of Grandpa...it made me cry! It's how I remember him best, and I still miss my "Pappa"....especially on fishing trips. I'm involved in writing a bunch of the family stories/history (okay,. they're PAGE family stories, and history according to ME....but you know they'll be good, right?)
and I've been reminded over and over what a character he was...and how I loved him!
Like Natalie says, thanks so much for a quick mosey down Memory Lane!

Posted by: Mom | February 27, 2007 at 09:35 PM

February...

2007-02-08T20:34:00.000-08:00

Ok, so how did it get to be February all ready???? I can't believe it! Nothing much going on here. Life just keeps moving along. Hannah and I are getting excited about our trip to Washington DC in April. I am trying to reorganize my house (it is a HUGE undertaking, let me tell you!)

The girls parakeets are getting used to us. I can bring both of them out of the cage and they sit on the jungle gym, but they don't really socialize with us yet. I am hoping that they do. Bekah's bird, Buddy, is a fiesty female with a bite... and she loves to use it! Hannah's bird, George, is a kind of budgie st. bernard. He is BIG and kind of a ditz. He is very gentle once you have managed to catch him. They are both still just babies I guess, maybe I am hoping for too much from them yet. Only time will tell...

February 08, 2007 | Permalink

The Wedding

2007-01-15T20:32:00.000-08:00

We were so blessed to be able to attend the wedding of Amy and David recently. For those of you who don't know, Amy is Rebekah's birth mother. We were so blessed the day Amy came into our lives, not just because of the awesome gift of Rebekah, but also because Amy and her family have become our family too. They are just wonderful, godly people and we love them. Amy and David look so happy and they are so committed to the Lord. We are just terribly excited for them. Congratulations, Amy and David!!!!!!!!

January 15, 2007 | Permalink
Comments
What a nice pic of the three of them! I think it's great that you are able to have a relationship with Rebekah's birth mom. Not everyone can say that! And nice pictures from Christmas and Disneyland! Your girls are good sports to pose for your pictures. My kids get tired of me always having the camera in hand, too!

Tiffany

Posted by: Tiffany Hopkins | January 21, 2007 at 09:41 PM

Happy New Year!!!!!!

2007-01-15T20:23:00.000-08:00

We went to the Hoffman's house for New Year's eve... the kids had a great time playing games and such before watching the ball drop at midnight and making a lot of noise!

Hannah and Kelsey toast in the new year with Sparkling Cranberry Cider

Bekah and Kirsten "ring" in the new year with Noise makers

Hannah and Kelsey ride the Bumper cars at John's Incredible Pizza on January 1st.. Dawn and I took the kids while Jon and Tim stayed home to watch football...

On the 2nd we went down to Disneyland one more time before our passes expired on the 3rd. We had a great time, but the park was a "little" crowded. (they stopped selling tickets into Disneyland because it was so full, but we didn't have to wait terribly long for rides)

They have recently redone Pirates of the Carribean to include Captain Jack Sparrow from the movie (I knew you would like to see this, Nat) The animation is so incredible it looks like Johnny Depp is actually there! (this is not the greatest picture, but trust me, it does!)

The girls are willing to only pose once for a picture.. they get super tired of their scrapbooking mom and her endless snapshots.

We hope that you too, had a terrific New Year and will have a great year! J.

January 15, 2007 | Permalink

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!

2007-01-15T20:13:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, so it is now January, but I thought that you might like to see some Christmas photos...

Bekah had a musical performance on the last day of school.

And the kids choir at church sang on Christmas eve...

The girls in their new Tinkerbell Pajamas on Christmas Morning... They are waiting anxiously for Nana, Aunt Ruth, and Uncle Bill to arrive so they can open presents.

Hannah got an Ipod Nano (green) from Santa, an Ipod alarm clock from Mimi and Dadad, a parakeet from Daddy, a new bedroom makeover from Mommy, and Many more things. She was terribly spoiled by everyone! Here she is with a gift card to her favorite store, Kohls, from Aunt Ruth and Uncle Bill.

Bekah was equally spoiled... she got a video Now player from Santa, a parakeet from Daddy, a Polly pocket Cruise ship from Mimi and Dadad, a slushie maker from Nana, and Many, many more things... here she is in a beautiful jacket from Aunt Nat.

We had a spectacular Christmas... wish we could spend it with all of you...

January 15, 2007 Permalink

BIG WAVES!!!

2006-12-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

So we heard the news report that predicted 17-25 foot waves at Morro Bay. We got in the car and headed out to see them. The kids complained the WHOLE way there that they didn't care about big waves and they didn't want to go... 45 minutes later, we pull into the parking lot by the Morro Rock and... Ok, so they weren't 17 ft waves... they were maybe 10 ft. Tim and the girls didn't even get out of the car, but I came to see waves, and Darn it, I was going to take a picture. So I got out in the FREEZING wind and snapped about 30 pictures... here is one of the better ones:

On the way back around Morro Bay, we saw a group of 4 sea otters. The kids LOVED that and it made up for the poor waves.

So the day wasn't a total loss! Next time, tho, I am going to insist on a phone call to a local restaurant or something to confirm BIG WAVES! J.

December 19, 2006 | Permalink
Comments
oh my gosh those otters are so cool!!!!

I'm a BAD Blogger....

2006-12-11T20:00:00.000-08:00

WoW!!!! I can't believe that it has been so long since I updated this blog! Let's see... Highlights??...

Tim's football team went down to play Covina and lost a close game. They were very sad to be out of the playoffs... but we are glad to have Daddy around a bit more.

Hannah got on the Honor Roll for her first semester of Junior High. We are very proud of her, especially since we decided to let her "sink or swim" and didn't do much checking up on her.

I had a birthday. I got a pretty hot pink Ipod for my birthday! I LOVE it. I will try not to sing with the headphones in and ignore you all.

We just got back from Disneyland. We went down to see the Christmas decorations. Had a great time. Here are some pictures.

Riding in the fire truck down main street

Mater (like T Mater with out the T)

Hannah on King Triton's Carousel

Bekah on King Triton's Carousel

With Santa (Hannah was less than thrilled to have me MAKE her take a photo with Santa)

Small World.. all lit up.

R2D2 made completely out of Legos... at the Lego store.

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!!!! J.

December 11, 2006 | Permalink

Geek Squad

2006-11-20T19:58:00.000-08:00

So Bekah goes to Math Club after school on Tuesdays... her teacher lets them play all the math games she has and can work with anyone who needs help... So, she comes home two weeks ago telling me that Matthew in her class was going to wear a "geek sqaud" shirt to math club. She thought that this was terribly funny... when I asked why, she said "you know mom... Geek: people who like math and stuff, and squad: like a group, a bunch, a CLUB, a squad... get it?

Fast forward to Sunday. Kid's choir singing at church. They wear tshirts with the choir name, and jeans. They have to tuck in their shirts. So she is dressing, I say "we need to tuck in your shirt" I proceed to tuck in her shirt. She looks in the mirror and says in a deadpan tone "this is just great... you might as well just write geek squad on the back of my shirt!" I had to leave the room I was laughing so hard.... that is all. J.

November 20, 2006 | Permalink

Soccer is over!!!!

2006-11-20T19:57:00.000-08:00

Well, after a busy weekend, the soccer season is finally over! I love the soccer season, in theory... I just am very tired of it by November! This weekend we had perfect November weather (sunny and 80 degrees) for the end of the year soccer tourney. Here is how our weekend went:

Friday- Bekah had a birthday party to attend at 5pm, so right after picking up Hannah at school, we went to the store to buy the birthday girl a gift. We also needed to buy gifts to fill a shoe box for a boy in the orphanage in Mexico that our church helps. We bought the gift and shoe box fillings and got home just in time for Bekah to run down the street to the party. We picked Bekah up at 7pm (an hour early) so we could get to the High School football field. We went to the St. Joseph-Torrance football game. This was a first round CIF matchup at St. Joe. The Knights won 35-8. Now they are off to play Covina on Friday (YES, the day after Thanksgiving...)- this is a 3 hour drive that the girls and I WON'T be making. (I won't go to an away game even if it is just across town!)

Saturday- Soccer tourney day... Bekah started the day with a 10 am game. They were undefeated the whole season and a favorite to win the tournament. They lost the first game 1-2... shock, dismay, bewilderment... Hannah was next with a game at 11 am. They were also a favorite team. The season went well with only 2 losses,9 wins and 1 tie. They won the first match up, 2-1. Then we ran back to Bekah's field to see her team play at 12:30. They won this time 2-1. There was a short break to run to Jack in the Box for lunch, and then we were back at Hannah's field at 2:00 to see her team tie the other team 0-0. Then back to Bekah's field to see them win again 1-0. We were expecting that Bekah's team would have to have to play on Sunday in the finals... but the loss in the morning kept them out of the top 4 (they acutally tied for fourth with the team that beat them, so they were fifth) and they didn't get to come back and play for the cup. When I told Bekah that her team wouldn't be playing any more, she said "oh, darn" and with a little smile on her face, went back to playing with her toys... I think she is tired of Soccer too!

Saturday night- I had to wrap the shoe box gift to take to church- let me tell you, I am the packing queen! I got pants, shirt, shoes, socks, underwear(for a 12 year old boy),toys (games, cars, ball etc), toothpaste, toothbrush, deoderant, lotion, shampoo, pencils, notebook, calendar and some other little things into the shoe box. It was closed and HEAVY!

Later saturday night- I had to make 2 gift albums for the coaches of Bekah's team for the party on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday- Church- Bekah needs to be there early because the kid's choir is singing. So we race to church... she sings both services, I teach High Surf second service, and then Hannah and I race to the soccer fields for day 2. Her team is in 3rd place. But both teams ahead of us are who we play. So, game one starts at 12:40 and they win 1-0. Game 2 doesn't start until 2:50 so we have time to run yet again to Jack in the Box for lunch. Game 2 is do or die for Hannah's team. They need to win to take first place, tie to remain in second place. If they lose, they are in 3rd place and out of the trophy ceremonies. They play hard and tie 0-0 (this team we had played 2 times in the season, lost 2-0 once and tied them 2-2 once) so they finish the tournament in 2nd place. They get the trophies and we run to Bekah's team party. We got home at 6:30 and were all quite tired of being gone!

Oh, and for thanksgiving, I now am sporting a very november like sunburn! J.

November 20, 2006 | Permalink

SPOOKY!

2006-11-02T17:27:00.000-08:00

Well, We had a fun and spooky halloween. This year, Hannah outdid herself in the scary department! Check out her "Frankenstein's Daughter" costume (she designed it herself, picked up some things at the thrift store, and others at Target...)

Bekah was the cutest rock star you have ever seen... watch out Hannah Montana!

We went trick or treating... it was the first time, in a long time, that we didn't go to a festival or something, so we walked for MILES around the neighborhood. The girls were worn out when we got home AND the bags were FULL! They had a great time.

We also tried carving pumpkins this year (well, yes, we have done that before, but not like these!)

While we are proud of our pumpkins, they don't even begin to compare to the man down the street... he has people come from as far away as Idaho (ok, Mom and Dad go every year.. that counts) to see his masterpieces. These are a few of my favorites from this year:

So, that was our Halloween... on Thursday, the kids were out of school (genius move by the district, I must say... they have an inservice day so the teachers don't have to deal with the sleep deprived, sugar hangover kids!) so we went with Mimi and Dadad to Boomers to play miniature golf. They left for Arizona this morning. The house seems empty and quiet. We miss them and Aunt Dee already! Hope your Halloween was safe and fun! J.

November 02, 2006 Permalink
Comments
Whee! Thanks for sharing the Halloween pictures! Always glad to see what's happening in your neck of the woods. Halloween night was clear and cool but the very next day the fall rain and storming started and it hasn't let up since! It's definitely fall in (western) Oregon! Take care! - Nat

Posted by: Natalie November 03, 2006 at 05:18 PM