Emerging from the darkness

(Warning!  Picture heavy post.)

Hello world! I know I disappeared there for a while. I do that. I’m getting better at letting you all know when it will happen and it is getting less and less frequent. Work gets really busy in the months around Christmas, which, so conveniently, coincides with everything else in my life getting really busy. Aah, the holidays. Don’t we love them?

Anyways, here’s some highlights from the past few months.

Going home for my brother’s wedding right before Christmas

Freezing our bacon off

Bro #4 and Aaron at the reception.  Don’t ask me why he decided to point his rocker devil horns the wrong way.

Bro #5 (the youngest) and me.

“Decorating” the newlyweds car.  That’s Aaron, Bro #4 and Bro #2.

Putting together puzzles, relaxing with family after the wedding at my parents “new” (to them) house, and enjoying the Christmas spirit.  (That’s my Grandpa with Bros #4 and 5.)

Getting stuck in Idaho because of all the snow.

My grandparents were (randomly) able to fly out.  Aaron’s flight got delayed, then cancelled, then he rebooked, that one got cancelled, and we ended up having to drive the 3 hours to pick him up from the airport.  My brother (Bro #1) and his new wife’s flight for their honeymoon had also been cancelled so we picked them up as well.  Luckily, my flight on Christmas Eve wasn’t cancelled and Aaron was able to get on a different flight home that day as well.

Gorgeous but cold

Bro #1’s car when we dropped him off at his apartment – 2 days after the wedding.

We think these people had a little trouble getting into their car (and getting their car out) when they got home from Christmas Break.

Taking the chair lift up Mt. Baldy on New Year’s Day

Didn’t we  just leave the snow?

Nothing like Idaho.  Still gorgeous, though.

You can barely see the parking lot at the bottom where we and the five bazillion other people who decided to go up to Mt. Baldy that day parked.

Going to the first Supercross race of the season

Next post:  A crafty update.

 

A little warmer

First, a few things I am grateful for:

2.  I am grateful for electricity.

I talked to Aaron this morning as I was laying in bed freezing my buns off about how to light the pilot light on the heater (which we both thought was out).  I can’t even believe I even need to turn it on.  Two weeks ago it was sweltering hot and I would have died to have an air conditioner.  I love the colder weather, but it’s a little hard for me to get going in the morning when it’s 60 degrees in the house.  Anyways, I re-lit the pilot light, turned up the thermostat, and nothing happened.  So, back outside to check the pilot again, which is still lit, and as I’m standing there trying to figure out how in the heck I’m going to type on the computer with freezing hands (big pet peeve – freezing hands), I see the cord for the heater lying on the ground.  Unplugged.  No wonder the darn thing didn’t work.  Turns out when the outlet that it is normally plugged into stopped working this summer, Aaron unplugged the heater.  We got the outlet fixed (a couple of weeks ago – yeah, we’re big procrastinators) but totally forgot the heater was unplugged.  So yeah, I’m grateful for the electricity that powers my heater so that my hands aren’t freezing and therefore can write on my blog (which, is also powered by electricity, hehe).

3.  I am grateful that Fall finally seems to have shown up in So Cal.  Autumn is my favorite season.  I love the colors, the weather, Halloween and Thanksgiving, all of it.  I know that now that I’ve said it we’ll probably get some scorchers next week but hey, I still love the Fall.

Here’s a couple of things I picked up on our Labor Day Pismo Beach trip that I’ve been saving for cooler weather.

Some tea towels:

I’m considering turning the plaid one into an apron.  If the apples were going horizontal instead of vertical on the large apple one, I definitely would be making it into one.

This little ceramic acorn:

I don’t know what, if anything, I’ll put in it.  It’s pretty small (about four inches tall).  Any ideas?

Both the towels and the acorn came from the Apple Farm Inn.  The restaurant wasn’t the best, but the gift shop was great.

And, bonus, I got my Scout’s Swag sock club yarn in the mail this weekend.  Very appropriate, don’t you think?

Hope you’re having a great Fall so far.  Oh, and the last thing I’m grateful for today:

4.  I am grateful I live in the United States of America and that I have the ability to vote and influence how this country is run.  I am also grateful this election is over.  Thank goodness.

 

A lot to be thankful for

See Mommy Sew posted today about Mary’s (Confession of a Craft Addict) “Thankful for 30” idea:

“For the next 30 days — the entire month of November — I’m going to write down at least one thing for which I am thankful each day. If I have a blog entry that day, I’ll include my thankful thing in it. Otherwise, I’ll Twitter it or write it on a Post-it note or jot it on the back of a piece of junk mail. However I do it, I’m going to put it in writing so I can commit to my gratitude.”  (from the Confession of a Craft Addict blog, http://confessionsofacraftaddict.com/2008/11/gratitude/)

Great idea, huh?  I have always struggled with being a “glass half empty” person and need these little pushes to remember how blessed I really am.

1.  I am grateful for this video (if you don’t want to cry, don’t press play).

Can you believe these parents!?  Heavenly Father knew what he was doing when he sent that little soul to them.  I saw this on Oprah earlier this week and then watched another Oprah show today with an update on this family.  They just had a beautiful, healthy little girl, Hazel.

I am grateful for everyone in the world that inspires me to be a better person.  Stephanie Nielson for inspiring me to be a better wife and (someday) a better mother.  Matt and Ginny (Eliot’s parents) for inspiring me to find the good in every moment I have in life, even the tragic ones.  Many, many others who inspire my crafting, housekeeping, charitability, love, and so many other things.  Thank you to all of you.

 

By the way

Happy anniversary to the love of my life.  Seven years, baby.  Can you believe we haven’t killed each other yet?

Neither can I.

Here’s to lucky number 7.  May it be the best one so far.

 

In case of emergency, break dance

Aaron and I were asked to teach a group of youth from our church a dance for the CA Inland Empire Dance Festival. Neither of us can dance. Or teach. We don’t know what they were thinking. The one time we tried to take dance lessons together we almost ended up at a marriage counselor. We spent most of the spring and summer teaching and practicing with these kids and then I spent several very, very long days in the middle of July at dress rehearsals (Aaron had to work, lucky dog). It was chaos, pure chaos.

At the end, I look back and think how much I love those kids, how hot the middle of July is, and how I never want to do this again. Oh yeah, did I mention these were 14 and 15 year olds. Click if you want to. This is the preview video for the whole dance festival. There was a video of just our dance (Footloose), but it didn’t do justice to how well our kids really did (although it does look they ended up using our groups for a lot of the close-ups). Bear in mind these are NOT professional dancers, they’re teenagers, who don’t dance very much, and are awkward. And we did our best. So don’t judge us. Please.

No, we didn’t take any pictures of anything. We don’t want evidence.

 

Look! Some pictures!

They do say a thousand words, don’t they?  Let’s hope so, because we all know I’m not going to.

I took my brothers to Disneyland for their first trip ever (they’re in high school or older, can you believe it!).   Not many pics, but we did take this one of our picture on the photo screen  after we rode Space Mountain.  Pretty funny, huh?  I’m not really that scared, my face just does that on roller coasters (and up-and-down — otherwise known as hilly — roads).  It’s been a lifelong problem.  Hey, just showing I can laugh at myself.  You can’t really tell here but my brother had pretty massive hair when he got off the ride.  Aaron took him to the barber shop to get it shaved off a couple weeks later (sorry dude!).

I finished the apron I’d been working on for a couple months.  My machine was in the shop for over 2 months with feed dog problems.  It turned out OK, not wonderful, but OK.  I used the pattern in Amy Butler’s In Stitches.  Not my favorite pattern in the world, but lots of good inspiration in that book.

Aaron playing guitar hero with my cousin.  For the first time ever.  We’re not a big video game family.  I’m not sure who was winning here.  If I remember right she was a little better (but she’s had more practice, right?).

Aaron on a moto/fishing trip.  I’m not a big sleep under the stars kind of gal, so they usually don’t invite me along.

Looks like they saw some trees and a river.  I don’t know, I just put it in there because I miss trees and forests.  The first time Aaron took me on a fishing trip (which actually wasn’t too terribly far from where he took this picture) I asked him if there were trees (a requisite for every stream/river fishing trip I ever went on).  He said yeah, there were trees, it was really beautiful where we were going.  There weren’t any trees.  There was scrub.  And sagebrush.  I told him I grew up in north Idaho, dude.  These are not trees.  And have you seen beautiful?  Let me tell you about beautiful.

Aaron and some snow.  In June.  In California.  They were pretty close to Mt. Whitney, though.

My brother working on the pergola he and I built this summer.  My Dad helped out some with initial planning and material buying and Aaron did a few little things, but for the most part it was him and I.  He did most of the grunt labor, of course.  I wasn’t getting paid.  It’s done now, I just keep forgetting to take pictures.  Hopefully I get the patio laid this Fall.  I still haven’t found any paving stones I like.

(Sorry about the date stamps on all of our pictures.  We keep forgetting to turn the darn thing off.  I never remember until I go to post them on the blog — or print them out!)

(Oh yeah, and it looks like I did say a thousand words.  Who knew!)

 

Do you like my new hair?

What, you want with a smile? Oh, all right.

I know I look like a dork. That’s what you get if you want me to smile.

 

Weather, did you make a wrong turn?

Here’s what my sky looks like today.

And our weather report:

One of our friends is driving up to Santa Barbara right now and called to let us know he had to pull over because it was hailing golf ball sized hail. I don’t think I’ve seen it hail here in years.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not complaining about any of this, especially considering the 100+ temperatures we had LESS THAN A WEEK AGO. Actually, I love a good storm, and we rarely get them here. We’ve had thunder and lightening and even some pounding rain on and off all day today.

So, thank you, Weather. Thank you for giving me the best spring since I’ve lived here. Thank you for the thunder, thank you for the lightening, and the rain, and for everything. I really appreciate it. Get lost again in our neighborhood anytime you want. You can spend the night at my house, if you want.

(If I can get it figured out, I’ve got a video from our backyard to put up. We’ll see.)

 

Getting a little warm in here

So it’s getting a little hot here in So Cal. Not that this isn’t a normal yearly occurrence. We just have never dealt with a southern California summer without an air conditioner before. We’ve been pretty blessed to have what seems like a pretty mild spring – lots of rain, cool temperatures, nice breezes, etc. We were feeling pretty confident about our ability to deal with the heat “when it came.” Well, it came all right.

This was in our living room. I’ve been feeling like a fried egg since the middle of last week. We do have a whole house fan and some ceiling fans, which do help out, but right at about five o’clock, I’m feeling pretty miserable. Thank goodness it’s starting to cool down a little.

With all this heat, It’s a good thing we have so many good ice cream and frozen yogurt places around. I am a total frozen treat junkie. My current favorite is Pinkberry frozen yogurt.

This stuff is go-o-od. I’m a fan of the original (plain flavor) with strawberries, bananas, and almonds. The pomegranate arils are also pretty good. We used to live close enough to ride our bikes if we felt like it, but now the closest one is ten minutes away.  Bummer.  I did make the drive to get some last week while Aaron was gone, though.  It was totally worth it.

 

No camera + wind

I was planning on doing a little updating and realized Aaron took the camera on his fishing trip this weekend.  When he gets back I’ll snag it back from him.  We really do need two cameras.  It’s actually kind of a good thing because I feel pretty yucky right now and just want to go lay down on the couch and read.  It’s windy and hot here right now and we don’t have an air conditioner.  Blah.  I can deal with the heat, just not the wind.  Its super drying and stirs up all kinds of junk that gets in my system, which makes my head feel like its in a vice.  Anyways, better blog fodder later, hopefully.  Hope y’all have a good day.

-T