Happy Birthday Grandma

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Grandma
Happy Birthday to you.


Steven made a card for you however it won't scan correctly so I will explain:

Red construction paper folded in half twice creating 4 squares total, below is what Steven wrote to you in your card in very hard to read writing due to lack of finger spaces:


You're cool gramaw........................ . You are great
oh yes you are . .................................You are a good
I love you . .........................................gramaw
Steven .


You are . ...........................................Oh yes you are.
OSUM (awesome) . .........................I love you
gramaw........................................... . love you
........................................................... love you

Happy Birthday Love Steven

Pictures of our mountains.

Here is one of the grape farms near our home. They have been harvested for the year and they will start cutting them back in preperation for winter.


I was out taking picures of a new property we listed and I actually had some battery left so it worked out well to take some pictures near home. We have a clear view of the Sequoia mountains near our home and I figured I would capture a few pictures yesterday, we can clearly see snow on the very tops of them. . I hope we can make a quick day trip up there and capture some pictures of the redwoods to post on here. I will try to capture some fall foliage to post in the up coming days. It's hard to do as everything is so green and flowers are still blooming here. We had unusually warm weather here last week. We were in the high 80's. Now are back to the normal 70's during the day. Shorts in October.....what's that about seriously.

Sweet Jimmy Dog

Sorry for the delay in sharing, we have been very busy. For those of you in Spokane, do you remember our amazing, large, and loud cat Jimmy.

When we moved to California we asked our dear friend Suzy to take him in and love him. It sure wasn't difficult for her and her family to fall in love with that big fuz ball and he fit right in.
I loved calling over and visiting with her when she was at home because she would always put the phone next to Jimmy so he could hear me talk to him and I could here him purr back.

Well our beloved Jimmy Dog is in a new home in heaven teaching all the other cats his pizza eating habits. The vet discovered bone cancer and we chose not to have him suffer anymore. I don't know who took it harder me or Suzy. True friendship is the willingness to take your friends beloved pet to the vet for the last time. Thank you Suzy for being such a great mommy to our Jim Jim.

Moon Sand Creations

Those cute kids did it again. Steven and Kayla spent a solid 45 minutes working hard on this awesome moonsand wedding cake.

It would be multi colored, however Steven has a tendency to mix all of the colors together rather then keep them seperate. There is lots of glitter sand mixed in and it created a lovely sparkle effect on this masterpiece.

Great job kids.

Finally, Here are some Halloween Pics

It took longer to load the dang pictures on here then it did to decorate and take pictures. Sheesh I need to learn how to do a layout and then just attach the layout. Someday it will happen. Anyway here are a few pictures form around the house. The little purple bags in the first picture are not for the trick or treaters, they are actually goodie bags for Steven's class mates. I spared all of you the hang with tape decor that Steven was in charge of. He gets better every year................. but needs a little more development in that area.

Here is our pet Swimmy, I think he likes the spider as he keeps going over to check it out.

I found these cool jars at Michaels last year and just had to get them. "Fillet of Snake" , "Spider Juice", "Skin of Toad", and "Lizard's Legs".

I just love these spider candle holders !!!

This little guy is supposed to light up.
This one is supposed to light up also. They did for about 15 minutes.

This picture is of a punch bowl set I got several years ago. The picture just wouldn't stop blurring on me so my apologies for it being hard on the eyes.

I have not done all of the cobwebs yet, much to Steven's dismay. We will work on that project this week sometime and see if we can't make the house look really freaky. If it works I will post the pics. If not......well then you will know they just didn't look that good.

Almost made it.

What a weekend we had. First and foremost I must say that Scott is and always will be my hero !!!! He searched and researched and searched some more (in case all of you have forgotten, Scott has extreme OCD) and researched some more for the "correct" inverter to allow Steven the opportunity to play his PS2 in the car for our 17 hours in the car this weekend. It worked like a charm and he was one very happy boy. Happy boy = happy mom, happy mom = happy everyone else. :) Although we are exhausted the trip went well, traffic was better then we anticipated and the fall foliage was amazing !!! NO Animals though and that was a bummmer because as Steven put it we had our "deer eyes on".

It was very interesting meeting Scott's family. Such a diverse group of people. I am sorry that I did not get to meet the deceased Aunt/Cousin Louise (don't ask as I cannot even begin to explain it) as she sounded like one heck of a lady. Steven did a great job keeping up with the events of the day. I was concerned about how he would handle a funeral so I decided to give him the task of modeling proper memorial behavior for a 3 year old that he just adored. As it turned out, it was a grave side memorial so we were in a beautiful old cemetery on a nice cool afternoon with fantastic fall colors bursting around us and I was so proud of Steven for being such a good "big brother" for little Aliyah. He stood still and quiet and held her hand and shook his head no to her every time she started to speak, she listened to him and tried her best to copy his good behavior, it was great. As the final "amen" was said, everyone began to break up into groups to talk before heading over to "cousin Charles' house for food and bonding.

That's when it happened.....the questions from our little man:

1. Are they going to go get the body so they can drop it in the hole now ?
A. Oh honey she, the body is already here and they will bury her soon .

2. What are they gonna do with the box, do they stick her in there?
A. Sweetie she is already in the box, so when everyone leaves, the box will be lowered into the hole and dirt will be placed over it.

3. Okay, I get that, where are they gonna get the dirt, and why are the leaving her in the box? wouldn't it be easier and faster to just bury the body.
A. Okay Steven look, the dirt is next to the hole right there under the tarp, that is what came out of the hole and that is what goes back in. People are buried in boxes called caskets and that is how it is done, it is how we respect the "dead". Now let's get going we have a long drive.

4. Okay mama, but we need to recycle so why don't we just use the the same box over and over again....seriously mom the body wouldn't know.
A. Alright buddy, get in the car we need to go. We will talk about this more when you are a little older.

Fine sheesh don't get mad, I was just saying we need to be recycling.

I don't know if anyone over heard our conversation as Steven is rather loud (especially since he has a cold right now and his ears are plugged.) because all I could hear was the little voice in my head saying.... "Almost made it".

"oh mama.....I just feel horrible... I just can't go on...

I receive a call from the school today letting me know that Steven was in the office 6 times today with various ailments in an attempt to come home from school sick. His sick act didn't work with me this morning before school and to his dismay it did not work during school either, so he decided to give it one last try so he could get out of having to go to the office with me this afternoon. "oh mama....I just feel horrible...I just can't go on... I better just go home and stay in bed and play video games while you go to the office.

Little did Steven know I saw a student's parants carrying a large tray of cupcakes and a big box of Capri Sun juice into his class. I assumed that since he was soooo sick he wouldn't eat the cupcake and he would bring it out to me after school so I could enjoy it.............. I guess I was wrong.

Being the mom that I am, I did not let on that I knew he ate the cupcake and I let him go on and on and on and on and on during our drive to work. I then confirmed that he was soooo sick that he just couldn't enjoy his day or even eat the cupcake at the end of class, I told him I was very sorry his was sick then I ask that he go into the bathroom and wash up. Needless to say, he came out of the bathroom with a very clean face and a few excuses as to why his face was blue, none of which revealed that he ate the cupcake. AAHHHH parenthood :)