Landscaping: Phase I

Our big accomplishment for 2008 is having completed the first phase of our landscaping project. When we purchased our home, there was pretty much just dirt in the backyard and on the side of the house. We wanted to put in a nice backyard, pour concrete on the side of the house for RV access and then refurbish the front yard to update the curb appeal.

We broke it into those three phases and tackled Phase I in 2008, which was the sideyard concrete project. First Chad had to spend many days tearing out the grass, tearing down an exisiting wall and leveling all the dirt. Then he built a masonry 1/2 wall between us and the neighbors. Then, in April, the concrete was poured. Since April, we've installed a shed and, just recently, Chad completed the gate to go across the whole thing.

It was a lot of work, but the end result is really nice.

Before:

After:

Visitors

We just had a great couple of days acting like 'tourists' showing some of our friends around.

Stacey & Sarah Wampler (some of our friends from Tucson) and Sarah's little sister Tina came and spent 2 1/2 days with us and we showed them 'the town' -- or what little bit of it is still pleasant this time of year (it's been REALLY cold around here lately!!).

On Monday we went down to the Santa Monica Pier and Third Street Promenade. It turned out to be a gorgeous, warm day and we wandered all over and enjoyed watching some of the crazy street performers that were out.

From there we headed to Hollywood to try our luck in the 'Wicked Lottery'. This is the opportunity to win $25 front row seats to that day's Wicked performance. Everyone I've told about it has actually won seats, but we'd never gone to try for ourselves. When we got there at 5:30 to get in line we were definitely shocked by the amount of people that were there.. and, sure enough, there were WAY too many and our chances were next to nothing -- and we didn't get in. So.. we headed over to Universal City Walk and wandered around for a while checking out the crazy stores and nightlife.

Yesterday we headed down to the Getty Center where we enjoyed the view and the gorgeous gardens. We then headed back to Hollywood to see if we'd be any luckier the 2nd night.. We drove over on Mulholland Drive, which was beautiful -- big houses and great vistas -- but then we hit traffic and didn't make it in time. We didn't feel too badly though because when we drove by the Wicked Theater there were more people there than there were on Monday night!!!

So.. instead.. we headed over to Hollywood Blvd and Highland and wandered over to Grauman's Chinese Theater and put our foot/hands in all the prints to see how we measured up to the rich and famous (by the way.. just as a comment.. some of those actresses feet are TINY!!!)

We had a ton of fun hanging out with them and hope that they can come and hang out with us again!

Monterey

OK.. now that the majority of the holidays are over, it's time to play catch up on the blog...

The weekend prior to Christmas we took a little trip with Chad's mom up to Monterey.  We just went up to go sight-seeing and relax prior to the holidays.  We stayed at my parent's home up there and had a great weekend full of Sunny Days (we must have brought the weather with us, because it was raining prior to our arrival and started up again as we headed out).

We headed up there the Friday prior to Christmas, arriving late that evening.  The next day was supposed to be our 'good' weather day, so we headed up to Santa Cruz and spent the morning harassing the wildlife on the pier and eating yummy treats:

We headed back over to Monterey in the afternoon and, on a bit of a whim, decided to go sailing. In a sailboat and everything!! Chad has been wanting to take sailing lessons for a while now, so he was very excited when 'Captain Dutch' let him steer while we were out in the bay. It was a BEAUTIFUL, surprisingly smooth, ride and we all enjoyed our short sojourn out to sea:

On day two of our vacation, we decided to take a drive around Pebble Beach on the 17-Mile Drive, which is a breathtaking ride including views of the amazing coastline as well as the amazing homes that are there. We stopped at the Links on Pebble Beach and took some pictures -- just to prove we were there:

On Monday we went down to Salinas and went through the National Steinbeck Center, which was very interesting. We then went and spent the rest of the afternoon in the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is one of my favorite places. I just love staring at sealife -- especially the jelly fish! :-)

After all the great sightseeing, we decided to spend our last day in Gilroy literally 'shopping until we dropped'. Gilroy has the largest set of outlet stores I've ever seen, and a few were going out of business, so the deals were amazing. Both of these facts meant that we were shopping for 7 hours solid. For three non-shopping types, it was a LONG day.. but we were happy when we left. :-) That evening we hung out with Shel & Meghan  ( Sam had to work late :-(  ) and celebrated Christmas a little early with them.

We headed back early Christmas Eve, getting home around noon and then commenced our final Christmas preparations.

It was a wonderful trip and was the perfect start to our holiday break :-)

Merry Christmas!!

We've been without internet for the past week so I haven't been able to keep terribly up to date on the blog.. (I'll have to catch up on that later). 

However, I wanted to take a minute and wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas from our home to yours.  We've had a great day at Chad's mom's house full of gifts, yummy food, games and spending lots of time with family (which, of course, is the most important part).  

We hope everyone is having wonderful, happy holiday!!  

Love to you all!!

Let It Snow!!

They've been predicting snow on and off for weeks, but when I looked at the weather forecast last night, it seemed actually probable that I would wake up this morning to a winter wonderland.  I was also excited that I might be able to experience my very first snow day and not have to go into work.  So, when my alarm went off at 4:30, I jumped out of bed and went to the window and saw.. nothing.  I was so sad that I went back to bed until 6:00 just to see if it might appear before then.  6:00 came, but still no snow.

So.. since it didn't appear that I was going to get a snow day.. I decided to get up and head into work.  I left the house just after 7:00 and I hadn't driven 2 miles before it started to snow.  By the time I was about 4 miles from the house, it was coming down pretty good and stuff was starting to stick -- even on the roads.  I drove slowly and finally made it to work at 8:00 (it's normally a 20 min drive).  Once I was at work, it really started coming down.  By 10:00 our parking lot was about an inch deep in snow and at 11:00 it looked like I was going to have to dig my car out to get out.  So.. after much debate (and sending my entire team home since they live elsewhere and the roads out of the Antelope Valley were closing right and left).. I decided to just come home before the roads got any worse.

So.. I got home about noon, opened the drapes on my big window in the family room, and watched the snow continue to fall.  It's been falling non-stop since this morning and is supposed to continue into the night.  While I can't say I'm much of a fan of driving in it (Chad, his mom and I tried to go to the movies and just being in the car as it was sliding around was enough to give me a heart attack), it is beautiful.  Just standing on our front porch watching it come down made us feel like we lived somewhere other than a desert -- somewhere that actually has four seasons!! :-)

 

Christmas in Bethlehem

Tonight was our ward Christmas party. In an effort to do something a little different, our activities committee decided to do a 'Christmas in Bethlehem'. We had done something quite similar when I was growing up in 6th Ward. I remembered how cool it had been, so when they called and asked me to help them plan it, I was actually pretty excited about the whole thing.

The amazing women in my ward transformed the cultural hall into a pretty fair representation of a Bethlehem market -- complete with trees and wells and a courtyard. It was really amazing once it was together -- much better than I could have anticipated.

The first part of the evening was spent in the 'market'. We paid our 'taxes' (canned food), signed the census, and were issued our allotment of gold/silver for the evening. There were shopkeepers for each of the shops in the market -- soup, chicken, bread, fruit/nuts, salads/sides -- as well as jewelry, carpentry, etc. We went around, paid them our gold pieces and ate some yummy food. Sam, Michelle & Megan were kind enough to come down from Monterey for the weekend to be the official photographers and they had their own booth in the marketplace, complete with a beautiful backdrop that someone in the ward had painted for the occasion.

The second part of the evening was a short presentation of the Christmas story. I had been asked to organize the music for it, and have spent the past several weeks planning and practicing. I took the celtic harp (more authentic to the time period), and played the prelude for the program on it. Once everyone was assembled in the 'courtyard' by the stage, we commenced with the play. Michelle volunteered to play the piano for me so that I didn't have to do my regular routine of running back and forth from the piano to the harp. The music was beautiful and the spirit was strong and I really enjoyed the whole thing.

Every time I participate in one of these events, I am always amazed by the amount of work it takes to make it happen. This was definitely no exception, and I must admit it's a relief that it's over. However, it really was better than your average ward Christmas party and I'm grateful to all who worked so hard to put it together. (And to Sam who was kind enough to share his photos:)

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!!

I love Christmas. I love the entire month of December. In fact, I start celebrating Christmas sometime in the beginning of November. My piano students thought I had lost my mind when I broke out the Christmas piano music for their lessons on November 1st, but in my opinion, one short month is just not enough to enjoy Christmas music!

While we were in Phoenix for Thanksgiving, we went and saw the Mesa Temple Christmas lights -- one of my favorite Christmas activities. We went the very first night they were turned on and it was the perfect way to kick off the season!







(For any and all who might be impressed by this -- I took all of the above photos with my little digital and they're all hand held -- not a single tri-pod in sight!)

Now if I could just get my Christmas decorations up I'd REALLY get into the Christmas Spirit!

Hope all of you out there are enjoying the season!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love Thanksgiving! I love the parade, the food, the pie and most of all the opportunity to spend time with family.

I just wanted to take a minute and wish you all a very Happy Turkey Day!!

Time Flies..

Today is our 2-Year Anniversary!!  Can you believe it?  Two whole years!  I know that doesn't seem like a terribly long time to most of you, I just can't believe how fast it's flown by.  

It's been an eventful two years.  We got married, Chad defended his thesis, graduated with his Master's and then moved to CA to take a new job.  I then sold my house in Tucson, got a job in CA, quit my job in Tucson, moved out here, we bought a house and then proceded to settle in.  And all of that in the first 6 months of marriage!  Whew!  Yup.. it's definitely been an eventful ride.. but it's been great.  

There isn't a day that goes by that I'm not grateful for my amazing husband.  I know there were some who thought I had waited too long to get married, but I'm so happy I waited for the right one to come along.  

I'm excited for what the coming years might bring, because I know that, together, we can take on the world! :-)  The journey has just begun..

My New 'Do

So my hair has been something of a frustration of late.  I don't know if it's the dry Antelope Valley wind or what, but it seems to be losing it's curl.  For someone who doesn't own a curling iron and has no idea what it means to 'do her hair' if it includes more than throwing product in it, this has been somewhat of a traumatic thought. 

Back in May, when I had almost given in and just started straightening it, I visited Meesa and found out about this magical place called 'Ouidad'.  It's a salon dedicated to those of us with curly hair.  So.. I got a haircut and some better products and almost felt like I had my hair back.. almost.  It definitely was not as curly as it once was, but at least it was behaving.  At least for a month or two.

Then it started getting a little too long and started going back to almost straight.  For about the last month it's been absolutely horrible and I felt like shaving it more than once.

Then I found out that there's a brand new Ouidad salon in Santa Monica (Yeah!!).  So.. yesterday I made the trek down there and had a very nice lady named Toni cut it.  I told her to cut it all off this time knowing that the shorter it was the better chance it had to curl.  It took her an hour and a half.. and it's shorter than it's been in probably 4 years.. but.. woila.. curly hair. 

I just hope it stays happy and curly a little longer this time.. 

Random Musings..

I can't believe it's almost Halloween!  Where has October gone?  Not to mention the first 9 months of the year before that..

I haven't posted in a while because i honestly haven't had too much post-worthy news.  However, I feel completely lame just not writing ANYTHING.. so here are a few things that have happened in the past month.

The month of October has FINALLY ushered in fall here in the Antelope Valley.  We had some crazy weather at the start of the month, with 90 degree days followed by 65 degree days.  However, it has settled out into a beautiful average of 80 degrees with blue skies and lots of cool sunshine.  I love it.  Fall is definitely one of my favorite times of year.. complete with yummy apple deserts, warm soups and stews (oh how I love my crock pot!) and the smell of cinnamon and nutmeg in the air.

To celebrate the coming of fall, we went to the Palmdale Fall Festival with the family.  We ate yummy food, enjoyed the 'living garden' with the amazing people-as-statues (I have no idea how anyone can stand still that long!), saw some incredible sidewalk art -- including the Mona Lisa, wandered through the craft booths and tried not to freeze (it was on one of those odd 65 degree days).  As town festivals go, I think it's pretty fun and we had a great day out there.

Chad has been diligently working on the gate for the side of the house.  We are almost complete with the first phase of our landscape makeover.  It's taken all year, but we have paved the west side of the house for backyard access, put up a shed, taken down one part of the wall and built an addition onto it, and now we're almost ready to hang the gate and call it done.  Then we can move onto phase two.. the back yard (yeah!).  It's nearing completion, so I'll be sure to post before and after pics once it's actually up.

This is also the first month that Chad has been running his car on pretty much 100% veggie oil.  He installed the conversion kit at the end of September and he's been running on WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil) ever since.  It's beautiful -- on the last tank of diesel (it has two tanks -- one for oil and one for diesel and you still have to use a little diesel when you start and stop the car), he drove 600 miles on about a quarter of a tank (10 gallons).  Not too shabby, eh?  Perhaps someday I'll post our whole little oil collection / filtering saga for all of the enquiring minds out there.

I was called at the beginning of the month to be the ward YW Camp Leader.  I'm pretty excited about it, actually.  I've always loved girl's camp.  So.. that will definitely keep me busy next year.  In the meantime, I'm trying to get ready for the Primary Program (I'm the pianist and am playing the harp for two of the songs), practicing to play the harp in church when I'm home for Thanksgiving and now I'm trying to coordinate the musical portion of the Ward Christmas Party (Christmas in Bethlehem).  In between all of that, I've continued to hone my lampwork bead-making skills and I'm actually getting pretty good.  Perhaps I'll post some more pics someday.. once I have time to actually make something out of them.

I almost forgot.. the most exciting news of the month.  Lancaster City Council voted unanimously a few months back to put the musical road back in.  They've selected a piece of road far enough out of town to make everyone happy and I think it might actually be back in already.  (By the way.. if you care.. Honda has posted a whole bunch of small youtube videos about the making of the road from the idea through installation.  You search for 'The Civic Project' and it all comes up..)  So.. feel free to continue planning all those road trips.. just let us know when you're coming to visit! ;-)

I think that about covers it.  Like I said.. nothing terribly post-worthy.. but somehow posting something makes me feel better...

A Little Something About Me..

My sister-in-law, Sharon, tagged me. The point of this tag is to list 5 joys, 5 fears, 5 obsessions/collections, 5 surprising facts, and tag 5 people.

- 5 Joys...

1. Spending time with Chad
2. Doing pretty much anything outside on a beautiful sunny day (just not when it's over 85 degrees)
3. Attending the temple
4. Music
5. Strawberry Pie :-)

-5 Fears...

1. Fire.  I have always had a HUGE fear of my house burning down.
2. Heights.  Just can't handle 'em.
3. Riding my quad on anything other than a flat surface.  My brain just can't seem to comprehend that it's not going to roll when only one tire is going over that huge rock.
4. People breaking into my house -- especially if I'm here alone.
5. Dark alleys and bad parts of town after dark.

- 5 Obsessions/Collections...

1. I've only ever had one actual  'collection': Sea Shells
2. Hobbies.  I can't ever seem to have enough of 'em.  Piano, Harp, Photography, Cross Stitch, Crochet, Travel, Lampworking, Jewelry Making, Paper Arts, etc. etc. etc.
3. Travel. I am just as happy 'on the road' as I am at home.
4. Creating things.  I love making something out of nothing -- perhaps why I have so many hobbies..
5.  The color purple. (not the movie.. the actual color)

- 5 Surprising Things about you...

1. I love camping.  In fact, I would rather camp in a tent instead of an RV.  In fact, in my opinion, if you're in an RV, you're NOT camping.  (I didn't think this was surprising but Chad insists that it is)
2. I used to be a travel agent.
3. I'm a terrible liar.  In fact, I've never actually told anyone a lie that they actually believed.
4. I am completely incapable of mopping and ironing.  I blame my mother.  I grew up in a house with wall-to-wall carpeting (yes.. even the kitchen and the bathrooms) and when I have tried to mop, the floor actually looked worse than when I started.  As for ironing, with the advent of polyester, my mother never ironed another thing.
5. We have a stash of waste vegetable oil on the side of our house that we use for fuel in our cars.

-Tag 5 People...

1. Michelle
2. Meesa
3. Danesa
4. Keri Dawn
5. Carree

Allergies

This is for all of my siblings out there that have harassed me my whole life because I didn't have any allergies when the rest of them were suffering.

I just want you all to know that they have caught up to me, and I can no longer claim to be allergy free.  Not only do I have them, but I think they're trying to make up for lost time.  They are terrible.

I can't breathe.  I haven't been able to for over a month now.  I can't sleep.  My nose, eyes and throat itch incessantly.  No drugs seem to help any of the above and I actually forced myself to go to the doctor a few weeks back and still.. nothing.

I keep thinking.. only a few more weeks and then the weather will change and whatever it is that is killing me will go away.  But it just keeps getting worse, not better. 

Sorry for the whining.  I probably should be glad that I've only had them for a year or two and not the past 30.  However, they seem to be taking over my life so I thought it only appropriate to share.

Besides.. I figure that ya'll might be able to help me out.. so.. any helpful tips from anyone out there??  I'll take any suggestions at this point..

Happy Birthday Momma Reed!!

This is my first time contributing to the blog, so here it goes...

It was awesome to be able to spend my mother's birthday with my two favorite women.   No matter how old I am, I never cease to be amazed at my mother's wisdom. She has taught me numerous valuable lessons such as:

1. All the toe wrinkling and flicking will not help when frustrated!

2. Failing is okay if you tried your hardest and examined every avenue and learned something along the way.

3. Not all buttons were made for pushing or pulling ( I still kinda doubt this one).

The list could go on for days and days with all of the valuable things she has taught me, but I can sum all of them up with simple Thank You Mom!!

I hope you had a wonderful Birthday -- I loved it. I thought it was perfect!! I could not have picked two better people to spend a weekend with!

Love Chad

More Birthday Festivities!

After last weekend's birthday festivities in Phoenix, we were able to just keep the party going this past weekend with Chad's Mom who had a birthday on Saturday.

For her birthday, we had decided to take her down to Hollywood to see Wicked on Friday night. We had gone in February and LOVED it and knew she would love it too, and we were all very excited to go.

We had a wonderful evening on Friday. First we went and ate WAY too much yummy food at Bubba Gump's at the Universal Studios Citywalk. Then we headed over to the Pantages, which is an amazing old art deco theater right on Hollywood Blvd and Vine. Here is a cool pic of the inside (which, sadly enough, I did not take):



The show was AMAZING (as we knew it would be). For any of you out there that ever have a chance to see it, you should take it. It truly is one of the best musicals I've ever seen (and I've seen a few). Our seats were pretty good too -- row G off to stage left, and they got better after intermission when we took possession of some seats even closer to the center. Awesome!!

After the show, we had decided to stay over in Los Angeles so we could go to the temple for a session on Saturday. We had a very lovely hotel in West Hollywood. In fact, it was so lovely that we had a bit of a lazy morning on Saturday and ended up, once we found some yummy breakfast in Brentwood, not even being able to attend a session. Turns out, the last session on Saturday was at 11:30 and we missed it. While a little disappointing, none of us were sad, because the whole point had been just to spend some time together and we enjoyed every minute of it.

It was a great little mini-vacation and we loved it.

Happy Birthday Mom! We love you!!

The Day the Music Died

For all of you who were planning that road trip out here just to experience the wacky 'musical road', I'm sad to report that you're too late.

They paved over the road yesterday, due to complaints from the locals about the 'noise'. Apparently there are some very light sleepers in our neighboring subdivision and they kept being awakened by the 'horrible' cocophony coming from the road. Honestly, we could hear it and we're almost a mile away. But it wasn't anything horrible or even annoying. Just sorta entertaining..

Oh well.. it was fun while it lasted.. although it was less than a month. It did put us on the map. There was even a news story on the BBC about it (Complete with video)! If you'd like to check out some of the coverage:

Musical Road Hits Sour Note With Neighbors

US 'Musical Road' Hits Bum Note

Happy Birthday Mom!

Saturday was Mom's 70th Birthday. In order to properly celebrate this significant milestone, Chad & I drove to Phoenix to surprise her (and boy did we surprise her!). We had a big family dinner at Mike's house and everyone made it aside from those who live out of state. We had yummy food and were able to spend some good quality time with the whole family. It was a great weekend and we had a lot of fun (aside from the heat! Ick!!)



As part of her present, we called friends and family and had them contribute letters that we put into a book. I spent all last week assembling the messages and pictures. As I did so and was able to share in some of those sentiments, I was overwhelmed by the example of friendship, service, love and faith that she has been to me and all those around her in these many years. (Truth be told, I cried for hours one morning as I cut/pasted them all together and read segments here and there..) She is an amazing person and I am so lucky to be able to call her 'Mom'.

Happy Birthday Mom!! We love you!!

A Musical Road to Nowhere

I know this is going to sound completely insane, but the Japanese have done it again. Avenue K just west of our house plays the William Tell Overture when you drive over it at 60 mph.

I know, I know it sounds crazy and impossible. My coworker at work told me about it yesterday and I wasn't sure whether to believe him or not, and Chad was convinced he wasn't serious. But it showed up in the paper today, and, if it's in print it has to be true, right? So we went on a little trip after work to verify that it was, indeed true .. and sure enough.. it worked!

They filmed a Honda commercial out here and the Japanese (who have done this on a few roads in Japan and Korea) cut grooves in the road at just the right intervals / frequency to produce music. It uses your car as the 'tuning fork' and you can hear the music by simply driving over it.

It is, by far, one of the wackiest things I've seen/experienced in a while. The funniest part? It's out in the middle of nowhere.. our housing tract is pretty much the west end of town and Avenue K just stretches from here out into the desolate desert beyond. Just begs the questions.. why here?

But.. I guess we needed another tourist attraction, right?? See.. more of you want to come and visit us now.. don't you? Hmm.. perhaps it's working. :-)

Here is the audio we recorded on Chad's phone on our 'musical journey'


share your files at box.net

If you're totally fascinated (how could you not be?) Here is the youtube link for a video of someone on the road in Korea that plays "Mary Had a Little Lamb": Anyang Singing Road

Huntington Lake (aka The Fuel Pump Saga)

Because we had some time off for Labor Day, we decided to take advantage of it and go on a little camping trip up in the Sierra Nevadas. We looked at maps for weeks and finally settled on Huntington Lake -- about 70 miles due east of Fresno and about 50 miles from Yosemite (as the crow flies).

We set off on our trek on Friday morning in the Excursion with our quads and mountain bikes towing on the trailer behind. By the time we got to our campground and set camp (after a few stops in Fresno), it was 5:00 in the evening. We went on a pleasant little ride around the lake on our bikes and then settled down for the evening.

On Saturday we got up and went on a quad ride up in the higher parts of the mountains for the better part of the day. Aside from some annoyances because the state of California doesn't really allow you to ride on many of the perfectly good quad roads, and I'm a bit of a wuss so the more challenging trails weren't really an option, it was a beautiful ride.

On Sunday we went in search of showers in the morning (and, luckily were successful 20 miles down the road at Shaver Lake), attended the Auberry Ward sacrament meeting (terribly friendly group) at the base of the mountains and then came back via Shaver Lake where we had a picnic and watched all the crazy people who had come out for Labor Day weekend. We took the scenic route back to camp, stopping by some geocaches and then took a little hike up to Rancheria Falls. Beautiful. Here are some pics from the first half of the trip:




Monday morning was COLD.. but we started out early and loaded the Mountain Bikes into the back of the Excursion, planning to drive up over Kaiser Pass to check out the scenery and hopefully find some trails to ride. When we started the car that morning we immediately knew that something wasn't right. We started down the road anyway, but as soon as we turned to go up the mountain, we both felt like we should turn around and head back to the little 'village' and check out the car. We parked across from the 'general' store and decided to first change the fuel filter to see if that was what was causing us grief (we just happened to have a spare). We got that done, started the car and pulled right in front of the store. Chad was idling while I went in to buy some wet wipes to rid our hands of the smell of diesel when the car just died. And then refused to start.

We tried starting it over and over and over again. Nothing. You could tell that no fuel was getting to the engine, but we had no idea why. After several minutes (possibly hours) and help from several of the locals who were hanging out at the bar next to the general store, we finally determined that the fuel pump was not turning on. We had no idea if it was an electrical problem or if something was stuck in it, or if it was dead. We found a listing for the local Napa dealer (20 miles down the road at Shaver Lake), and called to see if he happened to have a pump in stock. He said no.. but he could have someone bring it from the distribution center.. $290... ouch.

But.. since we didn't even know if it really was the pump, we decided to hike back to camp (1.5 miles up the road), get some tools and return to do more troubleshooting. Sure enough, Chad removed the pump and put voltage straight to it from the battery (thanks to some wire we bought at the store), and it was dead. Not even a spark.

One of the terribly helpful locals, Niles, had been listening to our troubles earlier and had spent the afternoon locating a small fuel pump he had 'in the back'. He broght it out and we figured.. why not try it? Even if it just gets us off the mountain and into town where we can buy a new fuel pump (for less than $300). We insalled it (with the help of some random fittings and clamps from the general store) and it worked like a champ -- it just wasn't big enough to actually push the fuel into that big diesel motor. So.. here it was.. 5:00.. all the parts stores were closed.. we knew we had a 'bad' pump but couldn't do anything about it. So.. we hiked back to camp, made dinner and ate smores and tried to figure out what to do next.

Tuesday morning, we called the Napa guy in Shaver.. yes he could get us the part.. but it was an extra $50 to get it that day and he could only go as far as Shaver. We had talked to the local boat mechanic, Mike, the night previous and he said he'd run and get the part for us for $20. We called AAA and they said we only had 7 free miles of towing and it would be an additional $7/mile after that, which didn't help much. So.. we ordered the now $340 part and packed up to hike back to the car.

Mike agreed to pick it up and Glen (the guy in Shaver Lake) promised it there by noon. Mike said he'd deliver it to our car around 1:00. It was 10:30 at the time.. so we had some time to kill. We hiked down to the lake and just hung out in a small meadow/beach area. It was definitely a beautiful day.. and all the tourists had left on Monday, so it was nice and peaceful. We hung out there until about 12:30 when we went back to the car to prepare it for the new part.

We took out the little pump that Niles had given us and then were just waiting around for the new part with nothing better to do. So.. we started messing with the broken pump just to see if we could figure out what was wrong with it. We banged it around a bit, etc. Nothing too specific. Then decided to put the wires to it again just to see. The thing sprang to life, shot out a bunch of diesel and seemed to be running fine.

So.. we put it back on. Yep.. the same 'ol part that had come off of it. Installed it.. the car started right back up and after a few minutes of driving around the block.. seemed good as new. We waited for our over-priced and now possibly unnecessary part.. and then headed back to camp:



Having had enough drama for a while and not wanting to chance getting stuck anywhere, we hung out in camp for the rest of the afternoon and took a nice walk down by the lake:



We packed up and drove home the next day without a hitch. We were tired and dirty, but we made it, which we were grateful for. It was not the best experience, but it was definitely another sign that Heavenly Father is taking care of us. We could have broken down way back in where we would have had to hike out just to flag someone down to get back to camp. We could have broken down on Tuesday when there was no one around and no store open to help us out. We could have broken down on the way back home and had to change that pump on the side of the highway. But we didn't, and thanks to Niles, Dave, Glen and all the other nice folks up in Huntington Lake, we were able to get back home in one piece!

Besides.. at least it was in a nice, cool, beautiful place. :-)

P.S. We were driving yesterday around here when the thing started going again. So.. last night we changed it out for the lovely overpriced one that we couldn't return anywhere. We truly were blessed that it even lasted as long as it did..

Oops...

Every now and again I do something just to prove to the world how stupid I really am. Previous feats have included flooding my first apartment by thinking I could hang a hanger on the fire sprinklers in my laundry room; sitting down while holding a yard stick in my mouth (long ways) and almost puncturing the roof of my mouth when it hit the ground on my way down; removing several inches of skin off my arms the morning I was flying to NC for an interview because I climbed on what turned out to be a VERY unstable piece of furniture in the bathroom to close the vent (I was cold..).

Luckily my most recent 'incident' was not nearly as painful as any of my previous ones (perhaps getting wiser with age?), but it was still just about as stupid.

I was packing my camping stuff last week, preparing for our Labor Day Weekend Camping trip and all of my camping pots / pans / utensils/ dishes were covered in a thin film of dishwashing soap that had broken open and leaked all over my kitchen tote. I looked at all that stuff, and since I was limited on time, decided to just throw them into the dishwasher to run for a cycle. Then they'd be all clean and happy so I could repack them into my brand new clean tote.

As I was putting them into the dishwasher, I had a fleeting thought that warned me it might not really be that great of an idea to put liquid dish soap residue into the dishwasher. However, I quickly rationalized that it wasn't THAT much soap so it shouldn't hurt anything.. right???

Um.. well.. about 20 minutes later I was rushing around the kitchen trying to get everything else packed when I stepped into a nice, wet, suddsy mess that was pouring out of my dishwasher:



















Nice, eh?

Three towels, three dishwasher cycles, and a bunch of salt (which apparently breaks down suds) later, my dishes were, in fact, clean.

Someday, perhaps, I'll learn...

Olympics

I have always LOVED the olympics. I don't know what it is exactly. Perhaps it's the concept of the whole world getting together; perhaps it's being able to witness so many dreams coming to fruition after so many years of hard work; perhaps it's the patriotism from cheering for the US competitors you've never even heard of; perhaps just the spirit of competition; or perhaps it's all the cheesy over-dramatic comentary.

Whatever it is, there is no doubt, I LOVE the olympics -- so much so that I've had two rather sleepless weeks. No matter what I did, I didn't seem capable of going to bed when Michael Phelps was about to swim, or Shawn Johnson was trying yet again to win that elusive gold, or Misty May-Tranor and Kerri Walsh were beating yet another opponent, or.. well.. if there was olympic coverage of any type on.

Yep.. I admit it.. I'm an Olympics addict...

So in honor of all of those who have competed and won or lost in the last two weeks (and all of those around me who have had to deal with my sleepy crankiness), I thought I'd post some pics of my favorite memories of the past two weeks.

Cruisin' with Uncle Chad

We were babysitting little Steven and Nathaniel this evening and decided to go for a little walk. As we were just cruising around the neighborhood with the boys in the stroller, we happened upon the leftover of a garage sale -- what looked to be a fairly functional child bike trailer with a sign on it that said "Free.. just haul it away". We tested it out.. and aside from some terribly flat tires and a missing bolt it looked like it just might work.

So.. we picked it up.. rolled it back to the house while still pushing the double stroller and feeling just a little silly. Once home, we put some air in the tires, replaced the bolt (that, of course we just had lying about), loaded up the kids (who were pretty confused at this point) and pretty soon we were cruising around in style :-)

We took a nice jaunt around the neighborhood (of course, passing in front of the house we picked it up from -- just so they knew it had found a good home.. or perhaps just to show off how cool we were). The boys seemed to like it and it helped give Uncle Chad a pretty good workout -- especially with the ever present Antelope Valley headwind! We even got a few comments from kids in the neighborhood that wanted a ride... Too bad everyone can't have an uncle as cool as Uncle Chad!!

Light Box Anyone?

OK.. so apparently there's a whole lot of photography 'stuff' that I don't know (shocking.. I know..). I was having trouble taking pics of my new groovy bead accomplishments to share with all of you, so I started doing a google search to see if I could find anyone who could share their wisdom with me. Turns out that photographing jewelry, electronics, random figurines, etc. has become a hot topic out there with the advent of ebay. So, I read all I could find and discovered that apparently I needed a 'light box'. Never heard of 'em.

For those of you out there wondering what I'm even talking about, a light box is a hollow box covered with material that you put a spotlight through. The material diffuses the light to evenly light a subject so you can photograph it without excessive shadows, etc. Who knew?? (Apparently not me..) I continued my internet search and discovered that you can buy light boxes, which pretty much look like laundry baskets turned on their side. Not wanting to spend any cash, especially for a glorified laundry basket, I continued looking and found several options for building your own. So, tonight I cut some holes in a shoebox, taped tissue paper across them and stuck my halogen light into it. Here are my first experimental results with my new contraption:




Amazing what a little tissue paper can do, eh? Oh yah.. and the beads are pretty cool too ;-)

Same Old Stuff..

I haven't posted in a while, and I'm starting to feel guilty. Somehow, in my head, I've convinced myself that all of you are checking my blog daily and are always disappointed when you don't see something new here. So, although I have no terribly exciting news to share, I felt the need to at least post a note to let you know that we are all here and alive. We've actually had a fairly calm couple of weeks.

Work, for me, has been slightly crazy. I've been put on 'special assignment' to take factories that are still operating in the stone ages and update them, make them 'visual' and create flow through them. No problem, right? Anyway.. we spent the last two weeks trying to fix up our first factory for a tour from Ft. Worth big wigs last Tuesday. We made it.. barely.. as we were sliding desks and stations into place at noon that day (tour was at 1:30), but the Big Wigs were duly impressed. First milestone down, but it's only the beginning. I've been given a team of three full time people to help me get it all done, but it's still overwhelming at times.

We had a visit from family this week. Unfortunately, it wasn't really for any happy reason. Uncle Bob passed away last weekend and was buried here. So Mom, Dad, Keri, the boys, Mikey and Dawson came and spent the night and then we all went down and met up with Frances, Linda and Diane in Gardena for the graveside memorial. It was a simple service, but it was very nice and I'm glad we were able to be there. It was a quick trip for them, but it was nice to see everyone.

Other than that, we've just been trying to get stuff around the house and I've been practicing my glass bead making skills. I seem to be getting better, perhaps I'll post some pics if I get some cool beads this week.

Viva Las Vegas!

We were offered an incredibly cheap trip to Vegas a few months back, and, of course, jumped at it (when have you ever known me to actually turn down a trip, much less a cheap one??). We decided on this weekend (I know, I know, it's a million degrees in Vegas right now.. but you gotta believe me.. there were extenuating circumstances), and have just returned from a two day whirlwind of lights, eye candy and general craziness.

Vegas is definitely a unique place. I haven't been since I was about twelve (I think.. if not younger), and it has changed quite a bit since then. We had a grand ol' time exploring and traveling the "virtual" world. We explored the shops along the Grand Canal and ate gelato in San Marcos Square in Venice; wandered the streets of Greenwich Village, ate pizza in a sidewalk cafe in Soho and then wandered down to take a look at the Statue of Liberty; meandered through a tropical paradise, complete with waterfalls, and saw a large Pirate Ship (although we were never there at the right time to actually see the pirates..); ate pastries in a small shop on a street in Paris; tried (twice!) to see the wonders of the sea, but never really quite made it; wandered through the Roman Forum and heard Ceaser address his people; and topped off the whole trip with a trip to the top of the Eiffel Tower to check out the view (complete with dancing water at the Belaggio below) and tickets to a Cirque de Soleil show that was mesmerizing and random all at the same time. Yep.. Vegas is quite the place.

Sure.. it was hot, semi-smoke filled and over-the-top gaudy.. but if you look past all of that, it's still a fun place just to wander and take in the sights. Not to mention the people watching..

Here are some pics from the top of the Eiffel Tower:

Beads, Beads, Beads

For any of you who know me well, you know that I seem to pick up hobbies right and left.. mostly because everything fascinates me and I love to learn new things. This week has definitely been proof that that's still a true statement.

I've been fascinated by lampworked beads for a while now. For anyone saying to themselves right now 'what in the world is a lampworked bead?' -- It is a glass bead formed by melting glass around a mandrel. There are some terribly cool pics here:

http://www.blackberrybeads.com/gallery/view_album.php?set_albumName=gallery

and a pretty good YouTube Video on how to actually make a simple bead here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-9erKOHcLQ

As an anniversary gift last year, Chad gave me a one-on-one lampworking class with a local bead maker. I really really liked it, and I seemed to be catching on quickly. That was a four hour class and I believe I made something like 10-15 beads, five of which turned out well enough to make into a bracelet. Ever since the class I've been wanting to get my own torch and try more stuff. I finally broke down about a month ago and bought the 'basic' kit but it wasn't until last Saturday that we finally got it set up in the garage (ah.. the beauties of cleaning out your garage once in a while). I've been out there every evening ever since. I'm definitely not great at it, but it's been a whole lot of fun trying out new stuff and seeing how it all comes out in the end. I can't quit my day job YET, but I'm well on my way! ;-)


I thought I'd share a few of my creations with all of you:

A Beautiful Weekend at Home

I was looking at my calendar over the weekend and realized that we hadn't been home, without visitors, since May 10th -- and that was only because that was the weekend we were preparing for vacation. Our life seems completely insane sometimes, but this last weekend we were actually home. We built a shed, we cleaned out the garage, we ran errands and did a fare share of just hanging out. I know, I know.. just sounds terribly exciting, no? But, for us, it was definitely a rare occaision. Now.. if only it could happen more than once every other month..

Kingman

We spent the weekend down in Kingman with Grandma & Grandpa Johnston. We spent a lovely two days with them there and were glad to get out of the heat back home (miraculously, I don't think it got over 85 degrees while we were there). We talked a lot, hung out on the back patio enjoying the cool weather, and were even able to drive up to the Hualapais for lunch and some nice mountain scenery. We only wish we could have stayed longer..

My Black Thumb

For those of you who may not know, I am infamous for not being able to keep any plant alive. After years and years of failure, I should know better than to try actually growing anything, but I guess hope springs eternal and I'm convinced that someday I'll actually be able to keep something alive for longer than a couple of months. Apparently, that day has not come.

At the beginning of every growing season, I entertain the idea of planting produce. You know.. tomatoes, zuccini, cucumbers, etc. It just sounds like such a lovely idea to go out to your garden and pick yummy things you can actually eat. However, I never actually get around to it (shocking, I know). However, this past spring we went to a home show and ended up bringing home a couple of free tomato plants, so I figured that tomatoes were as good as anything to start with.

My mother-in-law suggested planting it in an upside-down tomato planter which sounded like a grand idea to me. Afterall, it would prevent two things I hate -- digging and weeding. I searched around and around and finally found an upside planter at Target, planted my little tomoto plants in it, found a place in the back yard where it got morning but not afternoon light and started to water it faithfully.

Amazingly enough, it actually grew. In fact, for about a month and a half it thrived. It bloomed, it set fruit, I had little tomatoes growing and I was feeling terribly proud of myself.

Then, one day about two weeks ago, I went outside to water it and all the leaves had completely dried up. Once I removed them all, the poor plant had not one single leaf left. I have no idea what happened, but it was starting to get up over 100 degrees here, so my guess is that it just couldn't handle the heat. Or I wasn't watering it enough. Or both.

Not wanting to give up on my little tomatoes completely, I continued to water them for two weeks until they turned bright red (still no leaves). At this point, I decided to harvest my first produce (the largest was only 1.25" in diameter) and finally give up on the poor thing. I ate my little tomato (the only one of the four big enough to taste) and it was actually pretty good, considering.

So, in honor of my poor tomato plant, I'm posting a pic of it right before I harvested.

Oh well.. I still have hope that someday I'll be able to grow something.. guess I'll just have to keep trying..

The Gate - Revisited

Ok.. so for those of you who don't know about the 'Saga of the Gate'.. Chad built a beautiful gate for Mom & Dad's property in Monterey. We went up there in November and built the masonry pillars over an excruciating weekend that lasted WAY too long. Then, after building and painting the gate in our garage here in Lancaster, we went down in February to hang it and install the solar powered opener. We were relieved when it was finally done and were terribly proud of ourselves.

It worked beautifully for three whole months until, during the first week of May, a crazy car thief decided to run the gate while running from the police and didn't quite make it. In a scene that I can only imagine was much like the movies, he ripped the gate off it's hinges (just for a reference point, this thing is not small.. 16' x 8'.. made from 2" square steel), and then proceded up the hill and through the back fencing. The gate itself didn't appear to have a ton of damage, but the pole it was mounted to was definitely toast and it ripped the concrete anchors out of the pillars, taking large chunks of masonry with it.

We went up this weekend hoping that we could repair and rehang the gate without having to completely rebuild it. Sure enough, it looked hopeful, although not nearly as square as it once was. After two days of work, some serious welding and a new coat of paint, the gate is not only rehung, it, amazingly enough, is more level and works better than it did when it was actually square. Once again, we are relived that it's done and can only hope that it will last longer this time..

4th of July

Happy Fourth of July!!

We are up in Monterey to celebrate the fourth with the family. It was a beautiful day here and we went down to the waterfront last night to enjoy the fireworks. They were amazing, as always, and, despite the insane traffic trying to get out of there (didn't get home until after midnight!).. it was a great day.

Hope all of you had a wonderful holiday!

Andrew's Blessing

We just had a whirlwind visit from Ma, Pa, Keri, Tanner & Andrew. They were on their way to Monterey and stopped in yesterday afternoon to spend the night. While they were here, some of Keri's friends (Ted, Kari & Roger) came up from Los Angeles and we blessed Andrew in our living room. It was fun to hang out with everyone and to see the baby. He was terribly cute in his little white outfit. They have journeyed on this morning to get out of the desert and spend some time up in the cool weather in Monterey.