Disneyland in July 2011 (sans family!)

In July - was I crazy?  Actually I was attending the Close To My Heart convention and lucky for me it was held at the Disneyland Hotel.  I shared a room with my friends Beth and Julie, got to play with paper and ink, and learned all about the upcoming new products.  It was a blast - and I didn't even go to the parks once!  Although I must confess that the "singing & fireworks over the castle" headboards in the room were pretty entertaining.  I took some photos, but I think they must be on my other computer.  Oh well, guess you'll just have to go stay there yourselves so you can experience in person.

Yosemite in June 2011

Today a friend emailed me to ask if I'd posted directions for a sewing project on my blog.  Yep - back in 2009!  I was appalled to realize I haven't posted anything in over a year.  Whoa...Back in the saddle.  Hoping to at least hit this once a month...Stay tuned! 

In the meantime, I'm going to try to play a little catch-up on what's been happening in the past year.  This entry is obviously about Yosemite.  I took Afton and her friend, Amelia, camping in Yosemite for about 5 days the end of June.  I tried to get a valley campsite for a week, but we ended up in Wawona for 4 nights instead.  The river was so HIGH and our site was right next to it.  Nothing like a lot of "white noise" to lull you to sleep at night.  We did the typical camping things - fishing (river too high and fast to catch anything), hiking (I'm just not in good shape!), sight-seeing (too many sights to count), and camp cooking (my favorite part of camping!)  We had good weather most days, but did get rained out one night.  It made for an adventure, though, and we were quite pleased with how well we coped with tenting in the rain.  We even had an awesome hot breakfast in the rain.  Many campers had already bugged out the night before it rained...sissies!  All in all it was a great trip, and we brought back lots of memories.  And I'm glad we ended up at Wawona - we were able to have a campfire anytime we wanted to, which was especially nice on that cold, wet morning!

Nothin's bitin', but we look good!

Bridal Veil Falls

Hot cocoa & hashbrowns - yum!

Yosemite Falls

Hiking to Vernal Falls

Still hiking!

Fresh-baked brownies

Ahwahnee Hotel

November 2011 - LACMA

 November 2011 - Our Girl Scout troop made a trip to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to hold our rededication ceremony.  It was a blast -- right up until the guards started converging on us!  We  brought a small folding table along with us to use during our ceremony and that didn't make them very happy.  No harm done, but boy, they need more excitement in their lives down there!  The girls (and attending parents) had a great time, and we might just have to go back again. 

Road Trip - Day 7

Well this one was totally uneventful. After another breakfast provided by La Quinta we headed out from Phoenix around 7:30 a.m. We headed west and drove straight through, only stopping for gas and food. When we stopped at the agriculture inspection station, we were asked to open up the back of the truck. The inspector asked if we had any animals back there. All I could reply was "I sure hope not!" We certainly didn't need to bring any of Florida's "wildlife" along with us to California. I have to admit I found it fun to see the looks on the various truckers faces when they looked over and saw a couple of women driving the truck. One FedEx driver had to make a triple take as he was passing...Guess we were just a little more interesting than your average moving truck/towed car ensemble. We dropped of the trailer in Chatsworth on the way by so we didn't have to figure out where to park it, and so that Marion would have use of her car. Then we arrived in Simi Valley around 3:15 p.m. The road trip is over and reality is back in business. It was sure a lot of fun (more than I could have hoped) and completely worth it to have Marion back in L.A.!

PS - we drove the truck 2,834 miles from Florida to California. Wow! That's a long way!

Road Trip - Day 6

Hello from Phoenix! Today was a strictly driving day. We started in Fort Stockton, TX and ended up here after about 11 hours of driving, stopping only for fuel (and the related potty visits and snack/lunch purchases.) There was very little "road kill" today so we've decided we couldn't be "dead heads" anymore. Instead we noted the interesting road signs: NM had "Dust Storms May Exist" and constantly had construction zones that were interrupted with little 75 MPH breaks of half a mile, then back down to the tedious 65 MPH. Marion did manage to click several photos from the rapidly moving truck, with some of the highlights below. After a dinner at the Dennys next door to our hotel (including a visit with our friend, Beth, who lives in the Phoenix area), we are back in our room and planning an early bedtime so we can hit the road early and hopefully beat the L.A. rush hour traffic. We should be back in Simi Valley late tomorrow...Wow, this has gone by soooo fast!

Road Trip

This photo didn't post properly on my first road trip post, so I thought I'd throw it up again. It's just a picture of the vehicle I've been driving for the last few days. Now I REALLY want to get a camping trailer...if I can drive this across the country you bet I can drag a little pop-up tent trailer around!

Road Trip - Day 5

Well, I think San Antonio is definitely worth a repeat visit. We stayed at the nicest La Quinta ever and it was perfectly located for pedestrian touring of the Riverwalk and the Alamo. Pretty easy to get to from the freeway, too... always a plus when driving 40 feet of vehicle! We had a great rest and then were up for a very "Texas" breakfast, with a fun Texas-shaped waffle to go with our scrambled eggs and sausage (I do love LQ for the free breakfast!)

Then we headed out for the Riverwalk cruise. It was about 30 minutes, quite affordable, and was very informative. Once we finished our little cruise we walked along the Riverwalk and surveyed several handicraft vendors. I picked up a custom-made bracelet for Afton with her name on it (made on the spot with nylon cording) and a pile of postcards. Marion found a beautiful ring made from gold and silver wire.

We then headed up to street level and enjoyed some ice cream before heading for the Alamo museum. We were only there for a short time, as it was very crowded and we were both getting pretty hot (it was in the high 90s with high humidity, too...yuck!) So we cut back through the mall to return to pick up our truck at the hotel and hit the road for Fort Stockton. Now to be honest, there wasn't a whole lot to look at between the two locales, and you could easily miss Fort Stockton if you weren't paying close attention, but they do have a La Quinta (our favorite accomodation.) We entertained ourselves by counting various deceased beasts, counting 30+ deer, one dead wild hog, numerous badgers, coyotes, foxes, raccoons, porcupines, skunks, and only one armadillo. We also found a distraction in trying to take photos of road signs as they flew by (don't worry - Marion is the designated photographer.) We are quite glad to be here and planning an early night so we can get to Phoenix tomorrow early enough to possibly go out to dinner with a friend.

Road Trip - Day 4

Not too much to report today. We left New Orleans this morning at about 8:30 and arrived in San Antonio about 7:30 p.m. We are officially half way to Simi, having driven 1,400 miles so far. The drive was really very uneventful, so we returned to our earlier pastime of counting dead armadillos... Today's count: 18. (Along with 2 gators and 8 turtles - although we think some of the turtles were just taking in the air.) Tomorrow we'll be taking the Riverwalk tour and visiting the Alamo before heading on to Fort Stockton.

Road Trip - Day 3

Still in New Orleans! And loving it. We started the day driving around looking for (and eventually finding) the garden district. It was gorgeous! I couldn't stop taking photos of the beautiful homes, gardens, fences, etc. As we were driving along we discovered an old cemetery and had to wander through looking at all the above-ground crypts. There were some very interesting ones, and they reminded me again of Disney's "Haunted Mansion" attraction (okay, I really do spend too much time there...) After returning our rental car we headed back to the French Quarter and walked all over the place, stopping for lunch at "K-Joes" for some authentic Cajun cuisine. Marion wanted and got some delicious jambalaya and shrimp creole. I stuck with a blackened chicken and spinach salad. All were quite satisfying. Then back to wandering the streets, enjoying the stores and scenery, until we wound up at Du Monde's for delicious beignets and very cold yummy milk. So sweet (covered with a mountain of powdered sugar) and delicious. We also enjoyed a carriage ride through the quarter with a VERY colorful driver. Once we returned, we were done for the day (and the quarter was getting a little rowdy) so we grabbed a cab and headed back to the hotel for a short swim before returning to our room to unwind.

Road Trip - Day 2

Well, after a restful night in Tallahassee we climbed back into the truck and headed for New Orleans. We stopped to buy gas (I'm getting really good at reverse with the trailer - truck stop pumps only have diesel...who knew?!) and Marion took the wheel. Unfortunately, she was just a bit stressed by the drive and having her leg bent was causing pain in her leg. So after an hour of driving she pulled into a rest area and we switched back to our former jobs - driver and navigator. The day went smoothly and we arrived in New Orleans around 3:00 p.m. I had arranged for a rental car for the day so we picked it up and headed into town. Wow! New Orleans is almost like an island - there are huge bridges everywhere.
We went straight to the French Quarter and wandered around souvenir shopping and having a delicious dinner. My comment was that it was just like the "New Orleans Square" in Disneyland (can you see where I've spent too much time!) There were even strains of jazz music wafting through the air as we strolled along the streets. We had to take a few photos, including one of the St. Louis Cathedral, and a sign detailing the beginnings of New Orleans. Are we typical tourists or what!
We had loads of fun, but tired is tired, so back to the hotel we went for another restful night.

Road Trip - Day 1

Hello again from the road! Our first day was spent driving from Miami Beach to Tallahassee. Beautiful drive, and surprising just how long it takes to get from one end of the state to the other. We really only made a few necessary stops, with one exception. As we were driving along a beautiful parkway in Northern Florida's horse country, I saw a large road sign touting "Mayhaw Jelly for Sale Ahead." Well, I've never heard of a "mayhaw" and had to know! So, when the little roadside stand appeared around the curve I whipped off the road (Marion thinks I drive the truck and trailer like it's a little Mazda Miata.) We parked and toddled into the store to discover a new fruit. It looks like a little tiny pomegranate and tastes like a mild crab apple. The store proprietor was busy talking on the cell phone, and eavesdropping on her conversation in a pronounced southern drawl was quite entertaining. We were also introduced to Tupelo honey. I came away with a small purchase and was gifted a copy of their mail order list for my future Mayhaw jelly and Tupelo honey needs! All in all it was a fun little side stop.

Road Trip!

My friend, Marion, decided she was moving back to California. Afton was headed to outdoor school for a week, so I volunteered to fly to Florida and drive back with her. I flew in on Tuesday and we went out to a great dinner at her favorite Greek restaurant before heading back to a hotel on the beach in Miami Beach.

Wednesday morning we walked across the street to finalize arrangements on her rental moving truck and the car towing trailer. All was well until we saw the size of the truck and trailer. Panic! We would be driving that?! We left the truck and trailer at the lot until later in the afternoon (in hopes we'd be able to find street parking near her building) and then Marion headed into the office while I did a little neighborhood exploring and had a relaxing afternoon at the beach. Then I headed back to drive the rental truck over to her apartment building (it was literally across the street from the rental agency.) Once I got it parked and set up, I decided to start hauling some of the boxes down and putting them on the truck. While doing this I noticed that a street parking spot opened up, so I quickly moved the truck out to the spot. I jumped out to check my parking and instantly realized I had foolishly locked the keys in the truck....duh! I ran across to the rental agency to ask for a spare key - didn't exist. So, $65 later I had a locksmith break into the truck so we could recover the keys.

That evening quite a few of Marion's church friends came by to help load the truck and it was all done in about an hour and a half. After a community dinner of Domino's Pizza and ice cream we locked up and headed back over to the hotel to turn in for the night. Thursday morning we ran several errands before driving the truck back to the rental agency to pick up the car trailer and load up the car. I was sure nervous about how long the rig was (about 40 feet from my estimation) but the truck handles well and the mirrors are great. So at 11:00 a.m. off we went on our grand adventure!

I'm back!

Yep, I've been out of commission (just not "getting to it") for about a year and a half, but I'm going to give it another shot.

See you back here soon.

Chore time and the Pumpkin Patch

Our family has been participating in a great experiment lately. I had grown tired of being the only one who did any routine housework, and being frustrated had just stopped trying. You can imagine what that did to our home. What a mess! But help was on the way. I'd recently discovered reruns of "Super Nanny" and another favorite show "Clean House" and I got some inspiration. I talked to Thomas about it to be sure he'd be onboard for my new plan and he agreed to give it a whirl.

So about a month ago we had a family home evening lesson about housekeeping. I presented my idea to Afton and Thomas and we worked together to make a list of housekeeping chores that everyone could manage. We came up with 14 chores and added a 15th - Free day. But I knew to get everyone's cooperation we needed to add an exciting incentive. So we decided together that if everyone did their chores during the week that we'd have a fun family outing on Saturdays.

Week one was pretty rough as the house was pretty dirty, but we all survivied and had our first reward outing - we went bowling for two hours. It was a blast and just made everyone resolve to do great for our next outing. The following weekend we drove to Downtown Disney and watched the Toy Story movies in 3-D (actually I think Afton watched them and her parents both took naps...) The third weekend Thomas and I went out of town and left Afton in the capable care of our friend Kelly. We left enough money for her to take Afton out for dinner as a reward, and then they hit the local Claire's boutique for some new earrings for Afton.

This past week (yup! that's four weeks of success!) we all went to the local pumpkin patch to check out the pumpkins and have some family time. (Bet you were wondering if I'd ever get here, eh?) Afton brought her own money to pay for the rides and we promised to buy her one pumpkin. We looked on as she tried the bungee jumping, fed the sheep at the petting zoo, slid down the slide, and rode the kiddie rides. She had a blast and we all had fun.

I am so pleased that this new routine is working out so well. I love coming home to discover that my house is much cleaner and tidier (still working on the tidy part) and my family is all still involved. I have had to realize that it might not be as clean as if I'd done it, but hey -- I'll eventually draw that chore and do it "my way." Of course the "Free Day" is the most coveted chore, and so far I haven't been lucky enough to draw it. But I think I really knew it was successful when I was out cleaning the patio while Afton was windexing the patio doors. She looked over at me and said, "This is fun, Mom." I asked her what was fun. She replied, "Cleaning with you. It's lots of fun to clean together." Success!

Thomas has been so great about participating, too. The best part was when he drew the "wipe out the fridge" chore on Monday of week two. He had just done it the previous Thursday and wasn't sure it needed it again. I explained that that's the beauty of the new "system." You just clean it when you get it and it will never be that bad again.

The only hitch we've run into so far is when Afton has lots of after-school activities, so we've had to allow her to defer one or two times until the next day. But everyone has to have all of their chores done by Friday for the reward activity to kick in. And you can always do two chores on one day (or three or four or five!) just as long as you do at least one per day. Yay for my nice clean house. Now, what shall we do for our family outing this weekend...

Day 2

Well, I don't think my black eye will get any worse than this. At least I hope it won't. Still too swollen to open comfortably, but at least I didn't do any damage to the actual eye! And surprisingly, I'm not stiff at all, although I've discovered a few more bruises. Yankee and I resorted to a boring ol' walk today. Hopefully we'll be back on the bike by the weekend. And I will probably be sporting a new bike helmet, too! Now, if I could just get Yankee used to gardening equipment noises...

Beware the Weed Whacker!

I have been trying to get in more exercise lately, and have recently decided that it should include bike riding. I have a great 1960s hot pink American Eagle bike that I got about 12 years ago. So I came up with a plan! I'll take Yankee for his exercise while I exercise too. We've been out riding a couple of times and we both come back pretty winded. Yankee starts out riding up front, but by the time we turn back into our driveway he's lolling back a bit.

Today I decided to ride down a long street in our neighborhood that ends in a group of condos. Yankee and I are still working out the kinks in our signals as I keep him on a leash and need to watch that he zigs when I do so we don't become entangled. He's also had to learn that other dogs can't distract him so I don't get "taken for a ride." He did have a little trouble one time, but for the most part we've both been successful...until this morning.

I turned down an alleyway between some of the condos so we could turn around and head back to the house. All was well, we'd been out for about 10 minutes and we were just about to hit the street when a gardener with a weed whacker stepped back into our path. He hadn't seen us, so didn't power down his equipment. (The gardeners I've encountered are usually very courteous when pedestrians and bikers go by and they cut the power back to reduce the noise and flying debris.) Anyhow, back to the story.

Yankee doesn't care for loud sounds and this was too much! He shied away and boom! Took me with him. I didn't know pavement could jump up at you like that! Splat...I was facedown on the blacktop with my left eyeball staring into the gritty road. My glasses had gone flying and my bike was entangled in my legs. I know I put my hands out to brace for impact, because they're pretty tender, but my head just couldn't fight gravity.

The gardener cut his trimmer and came to my aid, as well as three neighborhood ladies. I clasped my hand over my eye, because it really hurt. I didn't think it was too bad until I took my hand away and the ladies all gasped! Now that's a sound you just don't want to hear. I looked down and saw that my palm was covered in blood. It really didn't seem like it was that bad, honest! One lady ran home and brought me a couple of paper towels. The gardener loaned me his cell phone and I called for back up. Then I gathered up my glasses, bent them back into shape and popped the lens back in place. Everyone was very concerned that I was okay. I reassured them, reattached my bicycle basket (it has a release mechanism so you can use it as a shopping basket) and collected Yankee. He was just standing there waiting to see what happened. I knew something was up when I could see my eyebrow hanging down into my eye.

I got back on the horse (I mean bike!) and headed back home. Thomas met me about half way. He pulled over and I walked up to the car. Because my lenses were dark the damage wasn't apparent until I pulled off my glasses. He was pretty shocked. Then I loaded my bike into the van, shooed Yankee into the middle seat and climbed in.

When I got home and surveyed the damage I realized why everyone was so concerned. It looked pretty bad. I iced it for about an hour, and am now applying arinca gel to help reduce the swelling. Isn't it pretty? I told Thomas that I think I'll dress up as a prize fighter this year. No makeup necessary! But tomorrow we'll be back out riding (this time I'll put on my helmet) and I'll be sure to stop the bike and walk past those pesky gardeners.

Before & After

Have you ever looked at something in your home and thought, "Hmmm, I need to fix that one of these days"? Hopefully you find one of those days and get to the fixin'! I didn't!

I am (as many of you know) an avid crafter, and since we ended up on the short end of children in a house with a larger number of bedrooms, I got to have my very own craft/sewing/scrapping room. My friend Marion even came out to CA from FL to help me set it up and I LOVE it! (Thanks Marion.)

Anyways, I digress. I put up these great "floating" shelves in the room over my work table to hold whatever I could put on them. Unfortunately where I wanted to (and eventually did) mount the shelves didn't allow for the supporting bracket to be screwed into the wall studs...(can you see where this is going?) I mean, really? Who needs to pay any attention to those silly weight restriction guidelines anyhow? I just put in some enormous toggle bolts and tighened 'em up to the wall as tight as they'd go.

For the last 3 or 4 years I've been looking at the lower shelf and thinking, "Hmmm, I need to fix that one of these days." It was tilted down about 10 degrees and always looked like it might drop its contents on me any day. But it never did, so hey, what's the rush? Besides, I need to be creative when I'm in that space!

Well, last week it dropped its contents! Yep! I guess the shelf got tired of waiting for me to "get around to it!" Afton was in my office collecting trash and everything came down. Thomas had to go in and rescue her as her hand was caught under the pile. Then he called me at work to let me know about the disaster. Fun to know, but what can ya do? Another frustration for me was that I had just got the room back together after my long weekend crop! And that was no small feat!

So rather than doing what I had planned to do last Saturday (I have a pile of sewing projects I'm itching to start), I got to patch the wall (the toggle bolts pulled right through the drywall) and paint the patches. Granted, the patches aren't the prettiest ones, but they're done. Then I screwed a length of 2x2 into the studs to provide strength for the mounting bracket and added two undershelf brackets to give it more added support. There is a "sunny side" to those brackets... Now I can have another rod to hang my ribbons on. Yes, my name is Vicky and I'm addicted to ribbon...

Anyhow, here's the finished shelf all remounted and organized. I'm happy to say that the only casualty in the process (aside from the "ventilated" drywall) was a broken piece of plastic on one spool of serger thread. Whew.

Guess the moral to this story is: Don't put off fixing till tomorrow what might come crashing down today!

Whew! We survived the summer!

Oh! What do you do in the Summertime,

When all the world is green... (Primary Children's Songbook)

Well, we did lots! We made two trips to the Hollywood Bowl - first to see Neil Diamond and Abba tribute bands (Neil was okay, but Abba rocked!), then we were back a week later on July 3rd for the "4th of July" fireworks spectacular featuring John Fogerty. It was a great show, too.

Thomas took Afton up to the Skirball Museum to see their special exhibit about comic books of the '30s and '40s, aptly entitled "Zap! Pow! Boom!" They had so much fun on free day that they went back again the next day and took one of Afton's friends along, too.

July found Afton and myself off on our Girl Scout adventures. We started out with a fabulous 3-night campout at Refugio State Beach. Five of the girls came along and spent the night, with the sixth girl "camping out" at a local hotel with her parents (to be honest that was way better than having her up all night sobbing!) We did lots of fun stuff -- mini golfing in Ventura, a trip to La Purisima mission and Solvang, and of course, a day at the beach playing in the sand. And we did lots of camp cooking - box oven pizza, dutch oven apple crisp, pancakes, hot dogs and of course, s'mores. It was a huge amount of preparation for both myself and my co-leader, but we didn't forget to take anything essential and everyone had a great time. The last evening the girls did skits and campfire songs, so it was a great memory maker. When we asked them what we should do in our upcoming year, there was an almost unanimous "GO CAMPING!" (Remember, one in a hotel...not too crazy about camping...)

We got back from our trip on Sunday and on Monday Afton and I headed down to our local Rotary camp for a week of Girl Scout Day Camp. This year I was the core staff member in charge of crafts for about 300 girls and staff. Fortunately most of the crafts had already been planned and purchased for, so it was mostly a matter of keeping my older girl scouts organized while they helped the younger girls. Afton was in a troop with about 12 girls and had a great time, too. Initially she was excited we weren't in the same troop, but as the week wore on she realized she liked having me around...oh well!

I must confess I was only able to get to the beach a couple of times (which is quite all right with me...don't care for salt water much) but we had a great time each trip. I do need to practice putting on my own sunblock, though. I still have three little white spots on my upper arm where I did put block. The rest of my arm got sunburned. Never was able to even that one out...lol.

Afton and I had grand plans to do lots of sewing this summer, as Thomas had been switched to a dayshift on Mondays. So I had planned to take Mondays off and sew. Afton did make a very cute vest and pants, and a lovely lavendar skirt, but that was it. Thomas's schedule went back to nights and I went back to work on Mondays.

At the beginning of June I mailed a couple of Afton's County Fair entries from last year to this year's California State Fair. In mid-July she received a letter informing her that both items had received first awards, and her t-shirt and jumper had also won a best in class award. But for Afton, the best part was finding out that she won $50 too! She's been "spending" it all summer, but didnt' actually receive her check until this week. We're putting it into the bank to save for her trips later this year.

In late July I coerced a friend of mine to bring her three boys and join Afton and myself for another 3-night campout. We got a great campsite at McGrath State Beach and had a ball. Her sons are 9, 6, and 2, and she also brought along her 15-year-old Japanese exchange student. I didn't remember just how dirty a 2-year-old can get! But we all survived and the kids had a great time. I'd sure love to hear the stories that exchange student is relating though. She probably thinks all American moms are crazy! And I guess the 2-year-old is still asking his mom "Go camping?" Successful for him, anyway.

Of course August brings our Ventura County Fair and Afton and I both entered our wares. Afton did very well again, receiving a first award and best in division for her vest and pants, along with several other firsts and a few seconds and thirds. I entered a variety of scrapbook pages and handmade cards and brought home a mitt full of ribbons too! Always a thrill to see those ribbons hanging on your page. This year we took Afton's friend, Amelia, with us to enjoy a day at the fair on opening day. We didn't do as many rides since it wasn't wristband day, but I was able to have them enter the Junior Fair Board's apple bobbing contest. They worked together as a team and ended up winning first place, including a fancy plaque for each of them. Pretty good return on a couple of dollars' investment if you ask me.

We took our summer trip to southern Utah and Las Vegas this summer. Thomas is saving his precious days off for our family trips to North Carolina and Alberta, so he stayed home. Instead I brought my friend Kelly and Afton brought her friend Amelia. We hit Zion, Bryce, and Cedar Breaks and the kids earned Junior Ranger badges at each park. Once we got to Vegas we had to go check out some of the sights and visit M&M world. Then we spent a day lounging at the pool before we headed back to California to get ready for school.

I don't think anyone was as ready as I was for the routine that school imposes on our home. I always love summer, but I have a hard time juggling all the fun stuff I want to do with work. Sure glad we get to do as much as we do. And Afton, Amelia and I are already planning our trip for next summer...Scottsdale, AZ, here we come!