lightening storm

view from our back deck.



there was more than 1400 lightening strikes in this one storm, for California this is a very rare experience. It filled our hearts with fond memories of when we lived along the western shore of lake michigan.

back in internet-land

We had some sort of digital power surge that literally smoked our modem so we were without Internet for the last week and a half. At first I was annoyed not having it and that it would take them so long to get here, but after a while I liked the quiet and even read and finished a book in my spare time not checking facebook or blogs!

It seems that we have a small wildlife refuge living in our backyard. Our house backs up to the American River Canyon. The national forest is right behind our yard. It is lovely to live on a cliff and be up where the hawks and birds soar. We have deer, turkey, a raccoon that sneaks up on our deck and eats all of Caden's raspberries, and a bear with two little babies that prefer to lay by the bridge leading to our front door.

this is the pregnant deer watching me take a picture of here through the window next to our stairs leading to the bedroom level. She was munching on our azaelia. They eat everything.



she is literally six inches from our window. We were enjoying checking each other out!





And here is mamma bear. This is 2pm in the afternoon. I was heading to my car to pick Caden up from school. The only way we got her to leave was to set off the car alarm. Then she just slowly meandered away, like "ok alright already I get the hint." We are taking every precaution to be able to let the bear live here. As long as she does not act aggressively. We all keep our trash inside until trash morning. She did attack our trash the first week we were here, she enjoyed some of Caden's birthday cake. She spread our trash everywhere, it was quite a mess. Then we left the empty trash can down by the garage and she drug it back up the driveway.



We contacted the fish and game and they do not relocate anymore. They would destroy her and her babies. That does not seem fair. So the neighborhood, mostly us (because she likes our house the best) are trying to make her wary of people and we are very aware of our surroundings. She seems to understand. She grunts and warns us where she is, and we carry a whistle wherever we go. We also posted notices by the trail that is right by our house. We will see. I hope we will all get along, because now we will have three bears to worry about.


here is the fiercest animal in the hood, Suki, she is in love with all of our windows that go all the way to the floor!


Our little guy is not so little, he just turned 8 a couple of weeks ago, he was so exhausted from all of the commotion!


thanks for stopping by! Talk to you all soon!

ups and downs

Well, we have had another bump in our road, but all things happen for a reason and it seems we are on the up side now! The place we were renting was unexpectedly sold (was foreclosed upon). We were given six days over spring vacation to move. We ended up putting our stuff in storage and staying with my dad for a few weeks. But we do have good news. We found the most beautiful mid-century modern house on the canyon edge. We really are working towards buying this place, it is beautiful and a dream fulfilled for all of us. There is even a swingset play area for Caden. We call it the treehouse. It is built in an 150 year old olive orchard.

we can see the American River and the snow capped sierra mountains(on a clear day, this picture was taken on a rare cloudy day) and the canyon.






the backyard


the back of the house and decks


the front door and bridge to the house

I will update with more pictures of the inside and Caden's 8th birthday soon!

happy easter

a really cool video...

baa studios...extreme sheep herding
Extreme Sheep Herding on youtube

I made something...

..well I am in the process of making something. A couple of weeks ago I made plaster slip casting molds. My kitchen was covered with white dust everywhere! My first set did not come out so pretty, so I chucked them in the trash! Trial and error, thats how I learn....This is the next set:



I think they are adorable! There is a mold for a small bowl/tea cup, a square bowl that is a little larger than a cereal bowl, a deep cereal bowl that is narrow at the bottom-it fits nicely in your hand, and a mold or a round cereal size bowl. I also made some slump molds (not pictured) Those are easy to make.



This is the first one to drop out...the small tea-cup/bowl that I shape a little pour spout on before it got leather dry.

here it is:





another view:





I am working on making silkscreen images (with my Gocco that I have had for a couple of years and am terrified of "wasting" it) of my artwork. I also am looking into getting a laser printer to make decals of my artwork (our church might have an old one, we just need to go to storage to look for it)



In family news, we are all doing well. I have been able to do pilates three times a week. I am due for my next set of injections for my back, so I have been more flared up than usual. I see those doctors on Monday, so I should have the injections scheduled to happen in a few weeks. The injections last for about 6 weeks. My appointments are every four weeks, so there is always a lapse of time where I am in a flare. Ok thats enough of that!



Thanks for stopping by!

the leprechaunator 2009

Happy St. Patrick's day! Caden has a thing for leprechauns. He is determined to catch one, so he spent yesterday afternoon creating the "leprechaunator 2009".

He thought that the leprechaun may be attracted to the scent of a sharpie pen so he "scented" the trap and wrote "leprechaun" on the metal bar to let the little creature know where he needed to be...x marks the spot! To sweeten the pot even more, he drew a rainbow to draw the sneaky little leprechaun near. But.....the leprechaun ended up springhe trap and taking the rainbow and left a note with a one dollar bill for good measure!

{ our cute kid }

We went to South Lake Tahoe this weekend before the next rain storm blew in. We took a gondola ride up to Heavenly Ski Resort. It was an amazing view.



The gondola starts at about lake level and shoot nearly straight up the mountain. It is a pretty crazy tall mountain.



This is the view of lake Tahoe from the first stop. It was really windy up on the mountain, we had to hold our hats on. Caden insists that he is afraid of heights, but it must not be too great of a fear because he was jumping on the grated decking that has a clear veiw way down the mountain just right under our feet.


This is the view of the first stop as we were going back down the hill.


Our goofy kid!

We are still contemplating the possibility of moving to the UK. Big decision.

february snow

One of the things that we have missed since moving back to California from Michigan is the snow. We live in the Sierra foothills so we are not too far away from the snow and we go and "visit" it every once in a while, but last Friday, the snow came to us!


Caden had a snow day, his class Valentine's party was postponed and all of this hoopla over an inch or two of snow. It was all gone by 11am. It was fun while it lasted though!

Let's see...we also had the Pinewood derby for scouts this last month. Caden's car came in at exactly 5 ounces, but we still didn't place. Here is a picture of all of the kid's cars. They were all very creative. Caden's is the red one on the bottom row, second in from the left.


We also learned how to cross-country ski with the Junior Olympians. It was really fun. Caden ended up getting five patches and two belt loops at the boyscout awards assembly. Here he is, proud of his achievements:


Paul was in Hong Kong for four days for work last week, and he is leaving for England next week. In fact his work has been courting the idea of moving us to London area for five years. It would be quite an opportunity, I love to travel, but I am worried what implications it would have on Caden. What would school be like for him? What will medical care be like for my chronic illness? And how do you transport a turtle? What would we bring, what do we do with our cars? Ugh, so many questions, so much to think about. Needless to say, we are not jumping into this decision. We are getting our passports and we will be traveling to England with Paul, probably within the next month or two. Caden is quite excited about that trip.

I am trying to be a better blogger and to update this more often, my craft room is getting organized and I have a couple of projects in the works. I am especially excited that I have a brand new laptop on the way, my very own airbook, my first mac! I am so thrilled and am counting the days until it gets here! woo hoo! I do say that I got a very nice Valentine's Day gift!