Our Christmas break...so far.

Sam came home a few weeks ago and told me he had good news and bad news. I opted for the bad news first: Apple closes down between 12/24 and 1/05. (He's a contractor, that means no paycheck for those days). I asked him what the good news was: Apple closes down between 12/24 and 1/05.

It's been lovely, though. We're doing stuff that is low-key, low-cost, and, as much as possible, outdoors. Sam doesn't deal with the short days well, so any extra sunshine lifts his spirits considerably. We had a solstice celebration at Phil's Fish Market on the 22nd. We read up on solstice traditions around the world, and decided that anything really weird and "out there" would probably be appropriate. But, we just ate clam chowder and listened to bluegrass. We're working on our weird, out-there tradition for next year.

We had a birthday brunch on Meg's birthday with our friends the Filceks, the Kirks and Wendy & Jim (Meg's extra auntie/grandma). We ate too much, and played some silly games. We made awesome coconut cupcakes(from scratch, mind you) for her birthday cake.



Christmas was pretty low key, and we decided it was our best ever. We had decided to stick to a pretty limited budget this year. And, it was our year to stay here for Christmas. Mom and the Waites were going to come up for Christmas dinner, but weren't able to, so it was just us. We got up at 9-ish, and emptied our stockings. Then we ate Christmas waffles and watched the First Presidency broadcast that we had saved. We opened our presents (doesn't take long with only three people and about 4 gifts each).

Meg got new clothes (since she's growing like a weed), a book on Egypt, a couple of 1000-pc jigsaw puzzles and a rock tumbler.



Sam got a new filter for his camera, some photo software that he wanted, a photo book that I made of our honeymoon, an electric knife and Monkey Pants (pj's that Meg made him).



I got a new faucet for my kitchen (yay!), a calendar and a "Families, a journey to forever" plaque from Meggie (she made the plaque in Activity Days and it's perfect for the family photo wall we haven't put up yet...but we will), and a cool stove top popcorn popper so I don't have to keep scrubbing burned-on popcorn out of my favorite pot. No pics of me are allowed before noon, so there.

We sat around in our jammies and did puzzles, played with new software, ate leftovers from the birthday brunch, etc. We had some friends who called and wanted us to go to the movie with them, but we were enjoying being lazy and didn't wanna get dressed. Other friends called late in the afternoon, wanting us to come help them eat Mexican food. Yum. They said "come as you are", so we did. (We did shower first, yuck...but we wore jammies/sweats over). It was lovely to get a Christmas tamale, something I miss when I don't go to AZ for Christmas.

We decided that for the rest of Sam's time off, regardless of what else we do, we are going to hit a beach every day. This is prime beachcombing time. We picked up almost a dozen whole sand dollars the day after Christmas down the street at Moss Landing.



Yesterday we went to Jade Cove, south of Big Sur, in search of jade. Meg found a couple of tiny pieces, but mostly we got some cool pictures.



Today, we'll hit Del Rey Oaks beach on the way home from church. We are so blessed to live here, we're spoiled and we know it.

Merry Christmas!!!

Birthday Girl!

Today is Meg's 12th birthday. Hard to believe. We're having a couple of families over for a family brunch birthday party in a couple of hours, so I still gots lots to do. I'm gonna steal Anna's post idea and tell you TWELVE things I love about my little "Meggie Punkin Angel Pie" (as Sam calls her).

1. She still skips down the hall. (She's only "too cool" for some things, I expect a year in YW will change that)

2. She has a funny little sense of humor and makes us laugh.

3. She wants to know EVERYTHING. Her favorite vacation activity is a museum.

4. She really wants to do the right thing. And gets very frustrated with herself when she doesn't.

5. She's still big on family. Her multitude of aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents are her favorite people to hang with.

6. She's very sweet with little kids. She's not quite ready for babysitting yet, but she a big help when friends come over with their little ones.

7. She likes to cook and makes us pancakes for breakfast.

8. She goes around the house singing. She says she "can't" sing, but thats a bunch of baloney.

9. She loves to run. Her sedentary parents hope she doesn't outgrow that one. She needs to have an outlet for her massive sweet tooth.

10. She's very creative and artistic. She got tapped by the YW pres a few months ago to make 30 origami frogs for a YW lesson on not kissing frogs.

11. She's very compassionate and wants to help people who need help.

12. She's STILL very much a kid, which I love. I'm in no hurry for her to grow up any faster.

Ok, now for the pictures:

Good news and bad news...

Good news: I got the funnest (and funniest) Christmas card ever yesterday. You guys make our day. You seriously need to have a blog-a-cation at our house. But, probably not until I stock up on inhalers. I have a feeling I'd be laughing myself into asthma fairly regularly while you were here.

Bad news: Meg came home with an outline for a social studies project that she's supposed to be working on over Christmas break! Isn't Christmas "break" supposed to be a BREAK!! Instead we'll be researching a paper on ancient Egypt and making a 3D sarcophogus (if you can believe that....Meg got to pick from several things and that's what she picked...geez). I had to sign the paper saying that I knew she had the assignment, but I added a note that I was signing but WASN'T HAPPY about it. She's only in 6th grade, for pete's sake and how are you supposed to plan family time when she has to do homework!!!!!! OK, I'm not over it, but I'll shut up now.

The Big Star

A couple of years ago, Sam made a huge star to hang on our gigantic chimney. the very next night, we had a huge windstorm that totally trashed it. Last week, the seminary teacher in our ward asked if we still had that because they're doing a "progressive dinner" style seminary Christmas party where they visit the shepherds, the kings, the star, etc. Sam offered to build a bigger, better one. He got it done on Saturday, but he was Santa at the ward party, we had to take off before we got it up. So, yesterday our friend Oz came over and helped Sam hang it. There was another big storm coming in and this party is on Tuesday. Sam leaves and comes home in the dark, so it was now or never. I was not excited. You Baileys may know his story about skydiving on Sunday. Anyway, it was fairly painless, it looks well secured and no one fell off the roof. And, it looks totally cool coming up the road! (Note: for some reason, sometimes you have to "pause" it and hit "play" again before it plays. I would slide the 5 second time down to 1 or 2 secs, also. It defaults to 5)



The Big Star

Edit: I was watching a storm come in over the ocean this morning while I was eating my cereal. As the sun came up, i could see a rainbow where it's already raining over the ocean. I was so excited, that I didn't see the rainbow in the cloud above it until Meg pointed it out. You might have to click on it for the bigger view in order to see either of them.

Musings on a cold morning,

OK, I finally had to admit defeat. When they filled my propane tank last Jan, it cost me $1400. (Propane was $4/gal). When we built this house six years ago, it was $1/gal, and cheaper than electricity, so we went wild on the gas appliances. Gas heater, gas fireplace, gas stove and range, gas water heater. They filled the tank up again in October because I called them, gas was going down, so I figured propane was, also. Still $3/gallon. Of course, now it's probably $2/gal, but whoda known? Anyway, I became a gas nazi. There's only three of us, so we cook in my toaster/convection oven when possible. I time Meg's showers (she'll take an hour if I let her). I refuse to turn on the heaters, it just doesn't get that cold here. But, this morning I woke up and it was 35 outside, 58 inside. The heaters are on now. There was much rejoicing from the non-bill-paying members of my household (which includes Sam, he earns it, but he has no idea what we pay for things). Those of you in Boise, Colorado or Utah where it actually gets cold will be laughing at me, but whatever. I live in California for a reason. And it's not the earthquakes.

If I wasn't too cheap to buy the mp3 of this, (and actually played music on my blog) it would be this.

Also, today I'm wishing I had something other than birk sandals to wear. I hate shoes, but it's a bit nippy for sandals. I could wear my christmas toe socks with my birks, but they look a bit silly with my Sunday dress. I actually do own some close-toed shoes, but my feet grew a half a size and they all hurt my feet. Unfortunately, that means I wear a 10 1/2, which is danged hard to find. I've tried some cute flats in 11s, they fall off. 10's hurt. So, I stick to my european sized birks (41). I know they make close-toed birks and clog birks and such, but in my size they look like giant clod-hoppers. Even uglier than birk sandals.

Sam and our friend Oz are putting up a giant (16 foot) star on our chimney. Please pray that no one breaks their neck. I'm going out to get photographic documentation for any impending lawsuits....

Merry Christmas.

Meg had her fall recital tonite. She did very well, but unfortunately the video camera didn't. The following is a re-enactment of her and I playing "Dance of the Sugerplum Fairies". The banging you hear is her tapping her platforms on our Pergo. (Sam panned down so you get a view of it).



Edit: I just posted that last night, and I didn't wanna add another whole entry. But, look what I got to watch this morning from my dining table while I ate breakfast. The wind was blowing pretty hard and I didn't have time to find a tripod, so it's a little blurry. I ran out into freezing (ok, it was like 50) weather just to get a pic for you gize.

Other Thanksgiving Weekend Adventures

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to the Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary in Pacific Grove. West coast Monarch butterflies over-winter on the central coast where the temps are mild...not too cold, not too hot. Here is a link about the migration. We've been there a couple of times, but both times only saw a few butterflies. This time it was amazing.


This is a pic of a cluster of monarchs up in the Eucalyptus trees. If you look closely, the "dried leaves" are butterflies,also. (You can click on the picture to get a bigger version) Most of the clusters of butterflies were fairly high up, so we didn't get great pics, but this one isn't too bad.

While we were there we ran into a lady that I grew up with. Last time I saw her was when I was pregnant with Meg, so it's been a long time. She still lives in AZ, but her daughter apparently lives in the Monterey ward. It was fun to see her, but a little bizarre to run into someone from home in such an out of the way place.

We had heard that a big storm in Alaska was pushing huge waves down here, so when we finished at the sanctuary we went to check it out. We took the first couple of pics in Pacific Grove, then we drove down to Carmel Highlands (on the way to Big Sur) and climbed out on the bluffs to watch the sun go down. It was spectacular in both places. The big wave/big rock combo is better than fireworks in my book.

Our Thanksgiving....

We decided that we wanted to do something different for Thanksgiving this year. None of us are crazy about turkey and it would take the three of us about a month to eat even a small one. So, we talked about just fixing our favorite foods, but that sounded like a recipe to a major tummy ache and about 10 extra pounds. We thought a picnic would be nice, as it's been unseasonably dry and sunny here. Sam joked about hobo dinners and we ran with it. We fixed four big hobo dinners, one with Italian meatballs, potatoes and veggies, one with his giant bacon bleu-cheese burger and veggies, one with curried chicken and rice, and one with jambalaya-style sausage and veggies over rice. We drove up to Pigeon point, cooked our hobo dinners, went tidepooling and had chocolate Lacey's (ccokies from costco that I won't buy because we eat the entire package in a day) for dessert. It was awesome and unless someone compels me to make a turkey again, I probably won't.

I'm Thankful....

I'm thankful to live here where most people just get to come visit.

I'm thankful that we have a job for the moment.

I'm thankful for the Book of Mormon.

I'm thankful that we live in a free country.

I'm thankful for my military friends who sacrifice so much so that we can have that free country.

I'm thankful for my kids (including my lovely kid-in-law) and my cute hubby.

I'm thankful for computers that let us keep in touch over great distances.

I'm thankful for my 51 nieces and nephews and their kids and the joy they bring our family.

I'm thankful for great parents.

I'm thankful for my sisters. Ok, I'm thankful for my bothers...I mean my brothers, too.

I'm thankful for my WONDERFUL friends.

I'm thankful for the beach.

I'm thankful for modern medicine, when I can afford it.

I'm thankful that the Church is true, no matter where you go.

I'm thankful for dark chocolate.

I'm thankful that Sam saw the bozo cutting lanes before he ran into us.

I'm thankful for the gospel and for my Saviour.

I'm thankful for prophets.

I'm thankful for my house and for the Dad that made it possible.

I'm thankful for Mexican food. And Italian food. And Indian food. And Chinese food. OK, you get the point...

I'm thankful for music.

I'm thankful for running water and indoor plumbing.

I'm thankful that Sam's mom didn't stop at kid number 6.

Ok, that's enough for now. Have a great Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday, Mom Bailey!

This is a couple of days early, but I wanted to get it done while I had time. My wonderful, sweet, lovely mother-in-law will celebrate the 51st anniversary of her 29th birthday on Saturday. So, in her honor, I've posted some of the old pictures that I've been working on scanning.


She was born in Oklahoma, and when she was still very young, her family moved to California ala Grapes of Wrath to look for work during the depression. The entire family worked in the fields. Gene told me once that when she was still very young, 7-8 years old, she could outpick her much-older big brothers.


This is one of my favorite pictures. This is Gene and Happy, her next older brother. I'm not sure what's up with Happy's one sock, but it always makes me smile. This was taken in Peoria, AZ in 1936. She says they were probably there picking cotton. While in Peoria, she got the only formal schooling she ever got, a few months of 3rd grade. She learned to read, though, and from that time on she read everything she could get her hands on. Neither of her parents ever learned to read, which makes her one of the first literate members of her family. She passed on her love of books to her kids and now their kids.


She says she was twelve years old when this picture was taken. It's easy to see where my favorite nieces got their good looks. If I was her Dad, I'd have been guarding her with a shotgun.


Apparently, he wasn't, though. At 14 years old, she married Dad, who then shipped off to WWII almost immediately.


They ended up with a big family, all of them lovely people, who I love. (I think Markie looks especially happy to be in this pic). My honey is the smiley cutie in the front on the far right.


Mom raised nine kids, who then produced 39 grandkids, who have so far produced about 70 great grandkids. All of them are among my favorite people in the world. I hear horror stories from people who have a hard time with their mother-in-laws, but I am very blessed to have the absolutely sweetest mom-in-law in the world. I love her and wish her the happiest birthday ever!

Wow....

Wow, I guess the backlash has started.

Haven't been to Oakland since the election, but I'm guessing with the proximity to San Francisco, that it's not much better. They were already protesting before the election.

::sigh::

In other news, I heard CHRISTMAS music in the grocery store yesterday. Don't you think it's just a BIT early??????? Geez. I love Christmas music, but really.

Someone should come visit us for Thanksgiving. :0)