Wednesday, October 24, 2007

10 years of California

My decade mark for life in California passed sometime in late August. It's hard to believe I've been here for 10 years. A lot has happened. I met my husband, I got a teaching credential, I've lived in 9 HOMES (good grief) and have had two children. That's a lot to do in 10 years. And while I miss Washington, there are a lot of things to like about California, and to dislike, Here's my list in progress:

LIKES:
weather
geology
Mt. Diablo
Marin Headlands & Golden Gate
Mt. Shasta
Yosemite
Mono Lake
beaches...so many great ones!
Sierras
Sequoias
Redwoods
Lake Tahoe
Yuba River
Feather River
Bridgeport (ahhhhh, I miss it so much it hurts!!)
The Cal Academy
Oakland Zoo
Monterey Aquarium
Glass Mountain
Burney Falls




DISLIKES:
weather (it made both lists, I hate the summers here, too hot!)
people (there are exceptions of course, but overall)
Berkeley
fancy cars and wealth flashed before your eyes every single day
traffic (need I say more)
Caldecott tunnel
The Maze
Bridge tolls and lines
cost of real estate
schools (underfunded, unapppreciated and overcrowded)
refineries everywhere

Monday, October 22, 2007

Howdy again, blog!



Next week is Halloween. Wow, October is my favorite month and it's speeding by so quickly. I like fall. I like the cooler days and the bite of the early morning. I like the changing of the leaves. I like that no one is really sick yet with the crud that seems to plague my children and everyone else I know from November through March. I really liked the modified year round schedule we had at my old school that gave us 3 weeks off in October...the most perfect month for vacation days, in my humble opinion. I also like taking the kids to the pumpkin patch and gettng a glimspe of the gorgeous Indian corn and the funky gourds. Andy picks out a gourd every year...ever since his 2nd fall. He was too little to care his 1st fall, but he's loved them ever since. I know it's just the something to carry routine that he's so attached to, but the boy does love his gourds. We keep them too, they make great maracas later on.

Our gorgeous tree (liriodendron tulipifera) is at its peak right now. I had to include a pretty pic of it with this post.

I had this crazy idea to plant a bunch of bulbs. Hundreds of them, actually. I planted muscari, daffodils, and tulips. It's been a lot of digging in less than ideal soil and more work than I actually wanted to do. I'm hoping it all works out in the spring and is worth it. The kids weren't much help, but I think they liked doing it.

I am reminded while typing here that fall is the beginning of split finger season. That's when I develop cracks and splits on my fingertips and around my fingernails. Ugh, there's something not to love about this time of year. It makes typing and wiriting more painful. :(

Instead of scrapping today (just wasn't feeling the spark) I decided to start organizing my piles of pictures. This is a monumental task that will take HOURS. I watched an episode of Grey's Anatomy while organizing, it helped to pass the time. I can't get over HOW MANY pictures I have. I feel like I have scrapped a lot of them, and I have. I can't believe how many I still have. I need to start getting rid of some that aren't so great. I am trying to organize them by theme, as this seems to be how I scrap these days. All of them have dates on the back as well.

Off to make some tasty lasagna for dinner! Yummy! Mr. Geek will be thrilled, it's one of his favorites, other than lamb shanks.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Grandparents come to visit


I thought I'd make a separate post about the grandparent visit a week ago. I was so glad they could come. We went to the Clayton Valley Pumpkin Farm, the Oakland Zoo, and just around town doing stuff (including errands) and hanging out. It was very fun going out to El Tapatio with them and watching Andy polish off baskets of chips. That boy loves tortilla chips somethin' fierce! I wish I had had my camera. THe pure look of bliss when a new basket arrived and was set down in front of him...priceless!

This pic of the boys is so funny...they look like they are about to embrace, but really they were arguing. Awwwwww. Well, that's how they are these days, almost always bickering. Sigh.

Ok, so it's been a while


Slacker! Yes, me. It's just that I get caught up doing stuff and I forget.

We're still without a regular teacher at Andy's school. I am still really p.o.'d about that but there's not a lot I can do. They are supposedly looking, nobody seems to meet the requirements exactly. The district tells us they are supposed to hire a new sub every 20 days, and showed us the ed code stating that this indeed is the law. What kind of stupid law does this to autistic kids?? Good freaking lord. This could seriously happen the ENTIRE YEAR, and it would be perfectly legal. Never mind that a teacher with the correct credentials from another state WANTED to be there. I can't stand red tape, but especially red tape that gets in the way of my children's education. What a stupid law. Aren't laws made to be broken?? Rob still doesn't have the regular speech therapist either...they keep saying they have someone coming in October. Well, it's October. He still hasn't had a speech class to my knowledge. I am pretty angry about things in this district right now. I think they actually want to do the right things, but geez. I am pleased about the new psychologist at school (she is a tremendous improvement over last year, who blamed me for everything...hmmm, that's pretty outdated!) and the OT we love. This OT has really helped change Rob's life. We "heart" Mr. Torrez!

Rob had his first Tiger Cub den meeting last night. I think things went all right. He sure looked cute in his uniform!! He was pretty excited about it all as well. I am hoping it will provide the realistic social group skills that he needs. It's also good that he has an activity to do with Dad (Mr. Geek) that he enjoys.

As for scrapping, I seem to have stopped buying for the time being (insert dh's YAY here) and am focused on scrapping. I have made a lot of 2 page layouts with lots of pics lately. It does drain the pic pile more quickly when you put 14 pics on. I am also trying to use a lot of older stash...a lot of old Paper Loft lately in particular. How could I have forgotten about my Paper Loft? Love those heavyweight papers and th weathered and worn paper designs and colors. That Nautical collection was a bit of perfection. The layout at the top was using up some of that wonderful Vibe collection from CI...such playful beach papers, rub ons, etc.

I can't close my Crop in Style binder full of thickers and remarks stickers...please, help me. It's serious.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Coming back to blog!


Well, apparently I decided to take a few weeks' off. Not much has been going on. Kara, Scott and Maya were here last weekend on their way back to the airport. We had a nice visit. Maya and Rob had a great time and Maya even slept in the room with both boys. NOBODY got enough sleep. We went to Rodeo Beach so Maya could see the ocean for the first time. The kids had a great time. We went back to San Francisco and went out to lunch at the yummy Greek place by Golden Gate Park. Jon and Heidi came along for the fun too.

I've been scrapping a little, feeling kinda sick with sore throats and the like and taking it as easy as is possible for me. The kids are still up to their usual antics. Mr. Geek brought his boat over from his parent's house and took it out to Martinez to the river. Both kids went out with him. Andy loved it, you can see him in the boat in the pic for today's post.

Well, time to go fire up the stove and heat water for lobster ravioli...mmmm, dinner. Always a blessed event with ravioli. ;)