Stuck

Before we put our mailbox up out front we painted it and had it on our porch for a few days.  One day as I was putting away laundry I heard a muffled "Moooooommy, help!"  Panicked, I flew down the stairs following the sound of my child's voice.  This is what I found...Molly, stuck in the mailbox!  As soon as I pulled her out we both sat down and started laughing hysterically.

Happy Halloween

Molly the ladybug and Willy the pirate.  This year for Halloween we went to Sierra Baptist's harvest carnival.  The kids had so much fun last year we were so excited to take them again.  I love church carnivals because it's not just knocking on a door and getting gross amounts of candy.  The kids want to have fun in their costumes most of all.  This way they get to do a little game (digging in sand to find lost treasure, fishing for candy, picking an apple out of water with one of those trash-picker-upper-thingys, you name it!) and get a little prize, not always candy.  We went home with a bag of candy, a baked good from the cake walk, some little toys, and best of all, tired, happy kiddos.  No creepy neighborhoods or awkward ring and no-answer.  No checking the pieces of candy for openings or pin holes where they injected arsenic (no, that was my mom who did that).  Just good, plain fun.  As a matter of fact, I didn't get any pictures this year of the kids at the actual carnival but here are some cute ones of their costumes.

The princess and the cat.  My friend Candace and me at the Sierra Baptist carnival.

Molly being silly with MarMar's wig and witch hat costume. She can really pull off the fro!

Go Bud!

My brother, Bud is an aspiring actor.  Recently he got a gig with Doritos for a superbowl commercial.  They film a bunch of "spec commercials" which are just short commercials I think, and then choose only a few to play during the superbowl.  From what I understand the way that they choose which specs they will use is by how many viewings there are on any particular one.  That being said, please go view my brother's awesome commercial so that he can play during the superbowl.  Wouldn't that be great?!  Here is the link to view it:  http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/gallery?video=7438

Finally, INTERNET!

Praise the Lord, I have Internet at my house!!!  To be honest, the thing that I have missed the most is watching House M.D. on Hulu every Tuesday night with my husband.  We were 2 episodes in when we moved so they have been piling up in my queue (has anyone besides me ever laughed at the spelling of that word?).  Episode #3 expires on November 30th so I was praying that we would have internet by then.  The installers cut it a little close if you ask me!  But tonight it will all pay off when we get to sit down and House it up for as long as we can stay awake.  I've got 4 hours (I think) stored up so we will see if we can make it.

The second thing I missed was, of coarse checking blogs and blogging myself.  That's good...that means I might actually stick with it.  I was able to check my e-mail quickly (and secretly, hehe) at work but I couldn't muster the courage, or time for that matter, to actually blog at work.  So, please enjoy the series of past events that I will be posting in the future.

Blog you soon!

Adventures on Hill Drive

Here are some amazing pictures that I took while on an early morning adventure walk to check out the Coyote dens near the edge of our property.  I've been using our digital Rebel (it's an older one, not sure what model) and loving it!  I'm working on taking everyday photos from artsy angles so they are more interesting to look at.  Like anything, practice makes perfect.  I can already see improvement in my photography!

Molly was playing with some flower weeds.  She was very conscious of the camera though and was giving me some great angles to work with.  She is such a little model!

Bleached snail shells.  Amazing huh!

Mommy and Molly adventure boots.

Welcome, Pup!

This is our new puppy, Pup!  He is about 3 months old and such a sweetheart.  My parents' English Bulldog, Lilly accidentally became pregnant by what they think was an Australian Shepherd.  The mix was amazing.  There were three puppies, Pup, Baloo, and Optimus.  Optimus went to another home, my parents kept Baloo, and we took Pup.  I think Pup got the most of his daddy's athleticism but he is the exact color of Lilly.  Like any puppy he has spurts of pure hyper energy but thanks to the bulldog in him, he tires out quickly.  He is already obeying commands (Down, Out, Stay are his best) and he is practically house trained!  I have kept him downstairs at night and when we are gone by putting up a child's gate on the bottom step.  When we come back he usually has gone to the bathroom right by the backdoor where I let him out (on wood floor...easy clean-up).  So this morning Will installed a doggy door.  I can't wait to see how he does with it!  I did go through a couple of days where I allowed free access to upstairs but I learned my lesson quickly after cleaning several poopies and pees in the same spot on the carpet!  Overall it's been smooth sailing with this sweet guy and we are so happy to have him as part of our family!  Thank you Mom and Dad!

I will miss you, Internet!

The adventures on Hill Drive abound but one thing that we will not have for at least a month is dear sweet Internet.  Turns out we are in the worst spot for Internet.  I was just about ready to sign up for HughesNet which is satellite Internet when I decided to call Rising Sun Company's (and Best Jewelry & Loan's) amazing IT guy.  Seriously, if you are ever having computer problems or need network help, you have to call Ken Wales with Wales Technologies!  He introduced me to a very fast solution to slow Internet in rural areas in the Central San Joaquin Valley...unWired Broadband, Inc.  This Internet is supposed to be even faster than our Verizon DSL!  The test is whether or not we can see Rocky Hill from our house.  Did we pass?  Barely!  Will climbed on the roof and reported that he could see the top of the hill from the far corner tippy-top.  Yippee!  Only down side is that their installation is backed up for about a month.  So, this will probably be one of the last posts you will see for another month till I'm back online.  Blog you soon!

Exeter Fall Festival 2010

Every year my sweet little town of Exeter organizes a festival in the fall.  This includes a parade down our main street (Pine Street), and vendor booths, food, a concert, and this year bounce houses in the park.  We love watching the parade and moseying around the park afterward but this year was extra special because both of my kids were IN the parade.  Molly was on a float with her little dance crew, and Willy got to ride in Gramzy's Woman of the Year car.  I couldn't stop snapping pictures and chasing after the kids as they passed waving like a maniac.  Even though they were both so exhausted the excitement got them through three hours of fall festival fun before they broke down and crashed.

Modeling her little parade dance outfit.

The only requirement for Molly was to wear the pink dance t-shirt and black on bottom.  Since she didn't have black pants and since the smallest t-shirt that they could get was like a dress on her, I decided to actually make it a dress.  We put a ribbon around her waist creating such a cute little skirt.  With her sparkly pink shoes from Mar Mar, she was the cutest one there!

Molly is on the bottom row, third to the right of the girl sitting on the actual float.  The girl to Molly's left is her friend Ella.

How cute is this: crossed legs, watching the dancers behind the float!

So excited to see Daddy after her first parade

 Here are some cute pictures of Willy boy.  He got to hang out with me for a little while after we dropped Molly off with her group.  Willy loved the band across the street (you can't see it but that is what he is looking at) and the baton twirler that was practicing in front of them.

Playing with a leaf after we dropped off Molly

Willy got to ride in a cool old Mustang convertible with cousins Erin (left) and Annie (right), Gramzy and Aunty Lauren.  He really hammed it up for the crowd with waves and big smiles.

New House Camp Out...or In

Get ready....get set...JUMP FOR JOY!  We are new home owners!  Escrow finally closed on Wednesday. So, last night we decided it would be fun to camp out at our new house.  Actually we camped in.  I brought over a blow up mattress for Will and me (courtesy of mom), sleeping bags and a little pop tent for the kids. I also grabbed all our DVDs, our mini TV/DVD player in one, some cozy blankets, and a TON of pillows.    I can't believe I actually remembered toilet paper too.  I did forget a couple important things like socks for Will, trash bag(s), and food.  The food part was ok though cause the kids and I added to the adventure by stopping at the gas station in the morning and getting a roll of donuts and some chocolate milk (mommy got coffee :).
I thought it would be fun to re-cap some events from our first night camp in:

Mommy wolf carrying babies on back

1. Upon arrival, we were greeted in our kitchen by a giant mommy wolf spider carrying her babies around on her back.  Luckily I've seen this before at my parents house so I wasn't too freaked out.  Plus, I know that our house is full of spiders and insects because it has been vacant for a while so I was already planning on having it sprayed before we moved in.  So after we had fun ewwwing and awwwing at the poor thing, I told Will to somehow take it outside please.  Thankfully I wasn't around for this next part.  He told me later that when he went to try and move it into a bag to take outside, the mom must have panicked and the babies all jumped ship!  I remember hearing Will stomping around in the kitchen and then wiping the floor down for what seemed quite a while.  He said that when they all started running everywhere he decided to just squish as many as he could and he could actually hear them popping under his boot.  AHHHHH, gross!  So, that was visitor number one.  Actually, to them, we were the visitors so I should call them inhabitants.
2. Inhabitant #2:  Mr. Scorpion.  Yes, a real scorpion with the tail
   
    and front pincers and everything.  Now this was a small little guy (as you can see from the picture on the right) but, HELLO, it's a scorpion.  I mean, aren't those things really dangerous?  Anyway, we ewwwed and awwwed at this guy too and once again, we decided to take it outside (Will told me quietly that he was going to "crunch" it as soon as he got outside).  So, Will grabbed a McDonald's french fry box (did I mention that our camping food was McD's?) and scooted the scorpion into it.  As he brought it near the kids and I to inspect, I noticed a little movement on the bottom of the fry box.  Genius idea.  The little guy was wiggling his way out of the bottom hole.  He was half way out by the time Will decided he better hurry on outside and do his business with it.  Crazy.
3. Inhabitant #3 (yes, #3!):  Lizzy.  Little Lizzy was locked in the loo.  She looked something like this.  I was very happy to see her there since they eat bugs.  You know, I just realized while typing this that I have no idea if they really eat bugs or not.  In any case, as far as my little brain wants to know, they eat bugs.  So, we all teamed up to sort of herd Lizzy out the side door where hopefully she will be fruitful and multiply and (hopefully) eat lots of bugs.
4. Adventure #4 of the evening.  Although this last character in my rather long saga was not an inhabitant in the house, he (they) sure made themselves known.  I woke up in the middle of the night to an awful noise.  I couldn't really decided if it was a baby crying/screaming (keep in mind that it's the middle of the night and I was half asleep), a dog dying, or a pack of rabid wolves.  Turns out it was a little of both of the last two.  Adventure #4 was:

A pack of coyotes howling/tearing up the neighbors dog...I'm not really sure.  I woke Will up and we sat there listening to the ruckus for a while and then went back to sleep.  It made me a little nervous about getting our new puppy (next post!).  I decided that I will be getting him a dog bed for the house and letting him stay inside at night for sure.  My mom told me that the best protector against coyotes is a llama.  So, as you might have guessed, a llama is definitely in our future plans.

More adventures to come as we begin the move and explore our new home so stay tuned!

House Update

It looks as though our long journey to purchase the home of our dreams has final begun to come to an end! Finally!  Tomorrow morning at 8:30am, Will and I have an appointment with the title company to sign escrow docs.  Technically escrow is supposed to close tomorrow but everything probably won't be filed and finalized until the beginning of next week.  So, it might be a bit too early to celebrate but WHO CARES!!!  YIPPEE, WE MADE IT!  What an emotional roller coaster, boy let me tell you!  What a lesson in patience and understanding.  I don't know that I did too well with my lesson, but looking back helps with moving forward.  We are in the process of making plans for a Halloween party out at our new place so keep it in mind.  Everyone will be invited.  It's not officially on the books yet and we realize that there may be some who have plans but we still think it would be a fun time to celebrate and open our house to family and friends.  When I have more plans nailed down I will make another post.

Little Ballet

A few weeks ago I enrolled Molly in ballet.  The 3 year old class is only 1/2 hour and includes ballet and a little bit of tumbling.  I wanted to post something because I'm just so amazed at how quickly she (all the little girls in her class really) are learning.  In the first class the teacher, Miss Christy, laid down square foam puzzle pieces and asked the girls to get in line and one by one jump over them.  Molly anxiously awaited her turn and proceeded to hop over the squares somewhat like a little pink frog.  A few girls did kind of a half leap, half hop that looked like a confused little pink frog.  When all the girls had finished Miss Christy said, "Ok, I
saw two kind of jumps today: a one-legged jump, and a two-legged jump.  Now, what kind of jump do you think a ballerina does?  That's right, a one-legged jump (and she gracefully leapt over the square).  Now let's get in a line and do it again, this time like a ballerina."  The girls lined up and proceeded to half hop, half leap over the squares but this time with much more concentration.  The next class I expected the same thing, confused pink frogs.  But, no!  Almost every one of the girls leapt over the squares just like Miss Christy had shown them!  I was so impressed.  That was one example of how quickly these girls are learning.  I now have a little ballerina dancing around my house and showing me new moves every week.  Although I can't say whether Molly will stick with dancing for very long, I am so glad that I enrolled her just for the sake of learning how to use her body gracefully.  I think just watching someone move gracefully week after week is rubbing off on her.  Hopefully she will turn out to be less of a clutz than I am!

Dreaming of Lace

I know I just posted two entries yesterday (or was that today?), but I tend to get obsessive when I start to get into something.  One of the things I'm obsessed with right now is lace.  Crochet, knit, new, vintage, bowls, doilies, tablecloths, shawls, all of it!  I've noticed it more and more these days in magazines and such so I'm hoping it is making a comeback.  Although, it could have always been there and I just never noticed before my obsession began.  There are so many things that I could mention about lace but I think I will narrow it down on this entry.  

Photo taken by Laure Joliet

Photo taken by Laure Joliet

I just had to mention the most amazing artist that I found a few weeks ago while browsing the internet for lace crochet.  Her name is Kristen Wicklund.  She creates what she calls porcelain-lace.  After you visit her website you just have to look at her flickr photos here.  She crochets these beautiful lace doilies of all different shapes and sizes, dips them in liquid porcelain, lays them in bowls or drapes them to give them a little shape and then fires them.  During the firing process all of the crochet thread burns out of the porcelain leaving this amazingly delicate porcelain art.  She has posted pictures of her process on her flickr page.  I would love to have a big bowl to put fruit or flowers in on my counter or a collage on my wall.

Photo taken by Laure Joliet

I wonder if the same thing could be done with a stronger medium (like metal) so that you could make a fruit bowl or basket that would hold up to a lot of wear and tare.  I visited her photos right before I went to bed.  Not a good plan if I want a good dreamless nights sleep.  All night I tossed and turned dreaming of crochet lace and its endless possibilities.

Thank You, Towels

Thank you, towels for being so large and easy to fold.  I could only wish the same for your fellow laundry (especially the miniature socks of varying colors).  When I am tired and weak I search for you so that I may take a productive break from the tedious process of washing and folding the many small clothes of my children.  Don't ever change, dear towels.

A New Local

Technically I shouldn't be posting this blog yet but I just couldn't wait.  Here are some pictures of our new home (hopefully).  We are still waiting on the final word so if you find that this post has magically disappeared next week it means that something went wrong.  I should say something else went wrong.  Wrong enough that we don't get it.  We have had several problems along this path but amazingly everything has righted itself over time and nearly everything has worked out to our advantage.  Pretty cool.  So, these pictures were taken during our home inspection period when the kids and I would drive out there to play and water the nearly dead plants.  All of our work was probably in vain however since we haven't been up there in several weeks and the seller has not interest in keeping the trees alive.  Ahh, C'est la vie.  

The kids enjoying an ice cream from the local market

My little cuties just sat down here all by themselves.
They were eating their ice cream and having a
conversation about the scenery.  They crack me up!

The HUGE kitchen

So, our future plans include:

• Flattening out the land in front of the house (we will have a total of 8 acres but not all of it can be flattened)
• Digging the natural pond so that it is bigger and more centered on the property.  Will wants that to be our swimming pool but I'm not too keen on swimming around in murky waters with little (or big) fishes kissing my feet.  So, he has some cool ideas to build a pool kind of to the side of the pond with a little waterfall into the pond. 
• Planting some yummy fruit trees.  Maybe we will have a little citrus orchard too.  I don't know cause that isn't my main interest.  I think it would be fun to have a few fruit tress though so that kids could go pick them.  If we don't plant anything though I'm fine with buying food from our neighbors little fruit stand.  They have beautiful fruit laid out (including pluots and asian pears, YUM!) right by the road that is all on the honesty system.  They have a little slot in the table where you put in money and take the fruit that you paid for.  I've even seen a little bowl with fruit in it that says "Try One! (washed)".  It's crazy.  I can't imagine anyone steeling from them for the simple fact that having their fruit stand set up that way is basically saying to someone, "I trust you and have faith that you will do the right thing and pay for your food."  I mean, who could steel from someone who says that to you?  I guess I'm not the best judge for that though since I never understood how people could bring themselves to steel in the first place.  Anyhow, on with the future plans...
• We want to have several sheep (for the wool) and possibly a Llama or Alpaca to protect them.
• A dog or two (of coarse!!).  Will insists that his dog has to be named "Dog".  I'm working on at least using the name "Pup" instead.  Dog?  Really?  Come on!
• Maybe a couple of chickens (for the eggs).  Will insists that free range chickens don't smell like chickens in a coop because their poop gets spread all over the place.  Plus there is the added advantage of free fertilization.  Oh, gross!

That's all I could come up with now although I think there is plenty more.  As far as the inside of the house goes, everything is pretty much good.  I will be changing some light fixtures around but it's all going to be pretty minor stuff.  I think we will have the real fun outside.  Finally, I will have a yard to let the kids play in!!!  I'll let you all know when our big open house party will be so, stay tuned.

Molly's Mermaid Shawl

Every year my grandmother, "Grami" organizes an all girls camping trip.  We have done this for years bouncing around to different camping spots.  A few years ago we tried camping in San Simeon and have gone there ever since.  One of our favorite activities is spending a day shopping in Cambria.  This year we found an amazing yarn shop called "Ball and Skein".  As I walked in the door my jaw dropped to the floor and my lungs filled with air as I tried to take in all of the beautiful yarn strewn about.  There were baskets of balls and long hanks hanging from racks suspended from the ceiling.  In the corner were a couple of women knitting samples to drape on pretty chairs and cushions throughout the store.  I was drawn to the draping Blue Heron hand dyed yarn that seemed to be raining from the ceiling.  I loved every color but the one I chose was a blend of silk and silver named "Ocean".  Pictures of myrmaids with irrodescent tails and flowing locks of hair swam through my head.  I couldn't wait to make something beautiful for my precious Molly girl.  I took the yarn home and wound it in a ball (it took FOREVER!) and left it on my nightstand for weeks trying to decide what to make with it.  I finally found a patter for a circular blanket/shawl/doily thingy that could go as big or small as I needed.  The circular pattern made me think of waves so I pulled out my beautiful new crochet hooks (hand made Nom OC wood; b.day gift from my mom bought that same day!) and...presto!  Molly's mermaid shawl. 

Bundled up at the cabin

I barely had a chance to weave in the ends let alone block it (wet it and dry it out in the right shape so the edges don't curl up) because Molly was so excited to have it.  That made me feel so good!

Girls Night Out

Last night I had dinner, coffee, and a long chat on a park bench with my two dear friends, Candace and Chelsea.

Thank you girls so much for a wonderful evening. I think it would be so fun for us to get together for a whole weekend once a year. Don't you?

My favorite story from last night (I just can't stop laughing about it): Robby Boyd's maxi dress sewing escapades.

After our long conversation about Blogger and/vs. Facebook I have decided that I would like to be a better blogger. I re-read my mouse story and bum story was doubly inspired. I think I will give my blog a make-over and start to include things that are of interest to me such as my fiber arts. Well, not arts really because I don't make "art", but my fiber hobbies I guess I should say: crochet, quilting and sewing. Perhaps I will grow as a blogger from there. After reading over this blog I realize that it will be a long journey! Here goes!

Bubble Angel

Shooting at the Cabin with Daddy

Sprinklers!

Fun in our backyard on July 5th