Apples!!

We finally made it to "apple picking" country, Oak Glen, California.

Our family of four drove 2 hours for the privilege of picking apples off trees all by ourselves (along with thousands of other families and friends).

We found a few really sweet places...Greenspot Farm and then the Oak Glen "village." On the way home, we passed Willowbrook Farm & Riley's Orchards and wish we had stopped at Willowbrook first. Riley's or a portion of it was closed today.

Anyway, at Greenspot, we found lots of fun--apple picking, although the apples for picking were sparse and small (it's late in the season for apples), a hay ride, a corn maze, a hedge maze, a hay maze, pick your own pumpkins and cut your own Christmas trees, farm-made honey, the honey bee combs, horse rides, petting "zoo," a baby llama, peacocks and little baby chicks, plus beautiful vistas from nearly all points at the farm. We also got to eat pumpkin bread and dream bars straight from the oven--the pumpkin cake had butter melted all over the top of it. We ate it during the hay ride and shared it with some of the other passengers. It was a party hay ride!

We had a great time there for a few hours. The girls got horse rides, got to see the baby llama, Sarah and I got to pick the small, but pretty, apples we found, and got a lot (I do mean a LOT) of fresh air and exercise. The apple trees were uphill from the entrance to the farm. I hadn't had that strenuous of a hike for quite a long time. But I did it, and I was pretty fairly proud of myself that I survived the uphill hike, and then the downhill near-roll, too.

What a great day it was. Scott and I both agreed it was worth all the traffic and other people to have had such a beautiful and happy family day out. It was so much better than putting the house back together after last week's home improvement activities!

Ten on Tuesday

A New Ten on Tuesday...

10 Best of TV this Season:

1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Boston Legal
3. ER
4. Brothers and Sisters
5. The Daily Show with John Stewart
6. Desperate Housewives
7. Food 911
8. Good Eats
9. The Nine
10.

Carpet comes tomorrow!! Then we can have our home back!!! I hope it looks as nice as I planned...will maybe have a picture or two soon.

Update on Daughter #1

So much talk about the house, and I've forgotten to update my virtual family about the kids. This post is about Sarah, our oldest daughter.

Sarah is doing well. She's getting good grades, but as I predicted, with all her extra activities*, she's very tired at the end of the day. I don't even know if she did her homework that's due today or not. I told her that I'd pull her out of art or chess if she didn't keep her school work and grades at any less than "B" work. With her brains and energy, there is no reason for her to fall behind. Her soccer coach has invited her to be on his spring team, which is preparation for a club team. I've learned that it is an honor to your playing abilities to be invited to play spring. He says she's got great potential and learns what she needs to do quickly. I'm fairly proud of her, can you tell?

*Girl Scouts, Piano, Soccer, Chess Club, Art class (all in addition to school)

The Money Pit Saga Continues

The carpet layers left after laying the fake wood floor, yesterday morning.


So far, so good--I bleached the area, as instructed; it looked so nice and clean when I got finished.

The drywall guy showed up when promised this morning and worked for about 1-1/2 hours. He has already replaced that and left. Now I need to put a layer of Killz then repaint the Acorn Squash wall section that was replaced. Odd how walls aren't really walls anymore, just pieces of board that aren't really wood, either.

I hope I can find the paint receipt that tells me the Dunn-Edwards name of the paint color.

We get to wait for the paint to dry and for the ceiling fan guy to install the new ceiling fan in the family room (the one in the bedroom is already there). Then we'll wait until Monday for
the carpet layers to return to finish the carpet.

Can't wait for the next chapter!!

Oh No

I think it all started with painting and getting crown molding, plus nice baseboard, and scraping the acoustic ceiling. It happened then, too.

The new dining room set didn't help much. It's beautiful. Pedestal table with two leaves, eight chairs, matching china cabinet with lights and mirrored backing, all in a dark cherry, matching our cabinets for the TV and accessories in our family room.

Well, looking at the beautiful dining room set forced us to look at the carpet in the dining and family rooms. I went shopping.

I found something affordable, that we could pay for with cash. It's also attractive, and we decided to put wood flooring (fake wood, but well...) in the hallway from the bedrooms to the family room. That's all we wanted to get re-floored. The installers are supposed to arrive this morning to take care of all that.

Last night, Scott and I moved the huge TV, the accessories and the cabinet components holding it all together. The TV was the last thing we moved. When we did, we saw something not pretty at all.

We saw a mark where the baseboard meets the carpet. It spanned up about a foot and about two feet across. Black, brown, some white (our wall is sort of an acorn squash color, and the carpet is beige). We measured from the spot to the end of the wall, and found that the spot starts exactly where our shower resides on the other side of this wall. Not only that, but this leak or whatever it is, sits right where all the electronics are for the TV, components, etc.

So, this morning, the carpet guys are supposed to be here, and I can only hope the plumber gets here first. All this I get to deal with by myself. My "d"H left for work an hour early this morning. I wonder why. He doesn't like this kind of stuff. Do I?

If Dad was alive and relatively healthy, or Uncle Cliff lived closer (or both), one of them could look at it for me and tell me what I need to do. Now I'm at the mercy of a well-reputed, expensive plumber. Dad was right. I maybe should have married a carpenter. Maybe he'd have a friend who does plumbing. Oh well.

Tom Hanks is right; it's a money pit.

Ten on Tuesday

10 bittersweet memories

1. Seeing things that my parents would enjoy and not being able to share it with them in some way--not sending postcards to them when we travel, e.g.

2. The sound of a well-tuned Harley Davidson.

3. Lilacs (my mom loved to go to Descanso Gardens in April to see the lilacs)

4. an old boyfriend

5. Redondo Beach

6. Oslo, Norway (The place I and my oldest daughter visited where my very good friend lived and died.)

7. my 1988 Jetta, because it was the best ever car, and I don't have it anymore.

8. my mom's cookbooks

9. my father's wedding ring (it has been lost for 2 years)

10. my grandma's ruby pendant (lost in Mammoth Lakes a long, long, time ago.) I wish I still had it so that I could hand it down to Sarah.

Wow--that was easier than I thought it would be.

I want....

...an attagirl.

This afternoon, I have been very busy. Well, I've been pretty busy for a few weeks, but today I think was especially so. After taking my 5-yr old to school for her school photo, then to the doctor (she has an ear infection), a 20 mile drive, getting her back to school, I went home.

To do what, you ask? To begin moving things out of the family room and dining room so that our new carpet can be installed!! We're getting carpet in those two rooms, and fake wood flooring in the hallway.

This new stuff excited me until I learned that we (meaning my dh and I) would have to move anything breakable or electronic out of the two rooms. That means my new dining room furniture, my new china cabinet (the one that almost caused a divorce), my sewing/scrapbooking containers, and the worst is yet....the home theater. The HT, I'll call it, includes a 6' high by about 15' wide cabinet, glass doors, full of electronic gizmos, including a TIVO, HDTV receiver, jukebox, the preamp, subwoofer, yada yada, and the 50 lb speakers, plus the wide screen TV. I didn't touch that.

I did however, empty the china cabinet, move my daughter's desk into the front room, moved two loveseats out of the front room and into the garage, moved all the chairs, the cookbooks (a full book shelf full), stuff from the drawers of the cabinet, and other miscellaneous and sundry items. It looks so nice and clean! I may not return some of the stuff to these rooms!

Now I'm tired, and should still cook dinner. My 9-yr old suggested a family restaurant down the road, and it sounded great to me. Besides, dh won't be home until fairly late tonight, so we'll have to eat dinner without him. 8^(

What I really want to do is take a pain pill and go to bed!

Asleep at the Keyboard

Something I've learned about myself lately...if I stay at the computer more than about 20 minutes, then I tend to fall asleep. I'm not sure why, but perhaps it's because I play games, such as Text Twist, Slingo, and others before I go to bed at night. Does this happen to you?

A rant/vent

I've heard that 3 more little girls died in the Amish community from the pedofile that shot them and himself yesterday.

I'm just sick. What did the Amish ever do to anyone? Peaceful, friendly, kind people who keep to themselves. How do Newt Gingrich and Pat Buchanan explain this one? Evidently, they both asserted that the victims of 9/11 deserved their fate because there are so many "degenerates" in the US. What is their explanation for this one?

Where is the god who was supposed to protect them from the "Outside World?"

I'm sick. I'm so sickened I can't write logically or even coherently. There are so many questions, such anger, such near-hopelessness in my mind right now, I can't sort them out to put them in print.

How am I supposed to be able to protect my two beautiful innocent daughters from sick deviants like the guy in Pennsylvania while they are in school--away from me? How do I try to protect them when they are with me? How do I adequately watch over them when I know there are 27 convicted child molesters living in my town alone, and most of them live either next to or across the street from parks and elementary schools? Can't the authorities make sure they don't live near locations kids frequent?

If that's not terrifying enough, we have Muslim terrorists to worry about; North Korea and it's nuclear weapons, pollution, global warming, car accidents, dirty bombs, India and Pakistan causing certain obliteration, the president (lower case on purpose) of the US making rash decisions that will surely affect all Americans, if not the world. It's maddening. It's terrifying. And I'm supposed to live my life like I always have, do all my little life's daily activities as if none of this was happening. As if.

How are the parents of the little girls in Lancaster, PA supposed to live their lives now? What about everyone in that community? Why did beautiful little girls, who should be playing in the playground, practicing their letters, piano, whatever, learning to quilt, sew, cook, laughing at little girls' jokes have to die so brutally?

In my mind, I want to help the Bransons of the world who are committing so much time and money to slowing the global warming trend. I want to get some kind of legislation in effect to restrict the types of neighborhoods convicted pedophiles can live. I want to find someone to go assasinate Kim Jong Il and make sure it's not connected to any nation. Make it look personal. But my body doesn't cooperate. I need to stay here to watch over my little girls.

That's not all, oh no, that is not all. I also want to find some far away mountain home where my family can live peacefully and still think the world is a beautiful place. But the thought still hits me that even there, some idiot with a button to push could destroy our lives forever.

But time marches on, and it's time to tuck my beautiful daughters in bed, wish them sweet dreams, assure them the world will be here in the morning.

Ten

10 Favorite Buildings: (not in preferred order)

1. The Gamble House, Pasadena, California
2. Sydney Opera House
3. the huge beautiful brick home on Ocean Ave in Long Beach (Can't find a hyperlink)
4. Queen Anne's "cottage", the Arboureteum, Arcadia
5. Falling Waters (F. L. Wright)
6. Langdon Carmichael's Townhouse, New York City, NY
7. Lord Byron's summer "cottage"
8. Anne Hathaway's "cottage," Stratford-Upon-Avon
9. St. Mary's & All Saints Church, Chesterfield, England
10. The castle that Walt Disney World's Cinderella's Castle used for its design.
(Disney World has Cinderella's Castle, and Disneyland has Sleeping Beauty's Castle--Paris Disney also has a Sleeping Beauty's Castle, with a very cool fire-spitting dragon in the "dungeon.")
A major favorite of mine is the Eiffel Tower (or Tour Eiffel).
I've climbed it 3 times, photographed it 100's and love all that it represents to mon coeur.