Today was officially Mike's last day at DBHC.  It will always be remembered as The Nut-Hut to me.  On his last day of work, he was flexed, called off of his shift.  What a way to go, huh?  Last night his coworkers threw him a going-away party.  Altogether he has been working that facility for about 10 years.  Even his patients had tears; he has always treated them right. 

 

On Tuesday he starts a new chapter in his life.  He will start working at Sierra Conservation Center.  It sounds all nice, like a green place to work, somewhere that is working toward using less energy or saving trees.  It's a state prison.  It is in a gorgeous area, right below Jamestown, CA.  You can read about Jamestown here http://www.jamestown-ca.com/  It's a lovely, quaint little town with a lot of gold-mining history.  The prison, of course, isn't quaint.  Mike is a little nervous, he has been at the same job for a really long time, but I am sure that he will enjoy his new one just as much.

 

Tomorrow we are going to church and then headed for the hills.  We're going a little past Jamestown to Columbia, which is a state park and also an old mining town.  You can read about Columbia here http://www.columbiacalifornia.com/  Every now and then one can read in the newspaper about someone finding a gold nugget while panning at Columbia.  There's still plenty of gold in them thar hills!  I plan to take my camera and get lots of pictures of the kids walking around town.  I love Columbia.  The park employees dress in period clothing and still do things like shape horseshoes.  It's supposed to be hot, but that's okay.  It's still a fun place to be.

 

There really isn't a whole lot going on right now.  Karnette and her girls are pretty much settled into the house.  They still have boxes, but they are now completely out of the old house and the keys have been returned to the owners.  It feels a little crowded, but I think that pretty much any house would with 8 people living in it.  Alicia is in the swing of homeschooling. I am enjoying teaching her and I like that we have flexibility so she isn't exhausted from a rigid schedule.  She still has her days where she can't concentrate, but on those days I let her take more breaks from her work.  If she needs to catch up I can work with her another day.

 

Oh!  History has been made today!!  Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, was chosen to be the running mate for Republican presidential nominee John McCain.  This is the first time that the Republican party has had a woman nominated for Vice President.  Looks like whether the Dems or Reps make it into office in November it will still be a historical event.  We will either have our first black president or our first female VP.  I am hoping for McCain and Palin to win.  Not just because I am a registered Republican, but also because I really admire both of them.  I don't exactly agree with everything that McCain does (embryonic stem cell research is a failure, they've only had success in using adult stem cells so I don't like that he backs the embryonic research), but Palin is a woman after my own heart.  I really hope that they can pull this off because I cringe at the thought of a liberally run country for the next 4 years, especially if most of the Senate remains the way it currently is.

Did you know that you could add your own pictures for a background?  When did that happen?  I swear, I have tried in the past and it didn't work.  It almost didn't work tonight.  But I got it to work!  Isn't it beautiful?  I didn't take the pictures, but I did make them into a collage and then use that for the background.  Nice and summery.

My floors are ruined.  My beautiful, two year old laminate floors are ruined!!  The water damaged both the laundry room and the kitchen.  I was cleaning the floors in the kitchen today and I noticed that the seams on all the boards are coming up.  I could cry.  I told Mike that I don't want to replace them until we move out of this house, whenever that may be.  He said he is fine with that, since the kids are hard on things anyway.

 

Still, I could cry.

I got up early this morning so I could drive Anayla to school.  This was a feat since I didn't go to bed until about 1 am, but my lovely sister has a wonderful habit of making a pot of coffee every morning, of which I drink roughly 2/3.  On the way to school the guy on the radio said that it was supposed to hit 101 degrees today.  He was right, by the way, the thermometer on the back porch says 101.  Go figure!

 

I debated on mowing the lawn this morning, but since it is watering day I figured I could wait until tomorrow (forecast, 104).  I decided to do some other stuff in the yard instead.  I need to preface this by saying that I used to enjoy yard work.  I enjoyed it clear up until I discovered that I was allergic to black widows.  Do you know how one finds out there is an allergy to black widows?  There's only one way to find out and I did that in my yard - over a year ago.  Needless to say, I have a healthy fear of the yard and it shows.

 

I worked in the front yard since that's what people see as they drive by and it has fewer spiders.  I was just getting up my momentum when the bug spray guy showed up.  He promised to kill any evil (pronounced E-vile) spiders that he may see.   He did the backyard first to allow me time to finish what I was doing.  I hula hoed the weeds in the flower beds.  I also attacked the weeds that wedged themselves a home in the cracks of the sidewalk.  I don't know why they're so hardy; I do spray them with weed killer.  Incessant little suckers, they are.  I got out my handy-dandy electric trimmer and squared the boxwood hedges and trimmed back the camellia bush.  I cut down a large portion of an insidious sucker plant that grows to tree height and is currently knocking down my gate.  I didn't finish completely, but it looks so much better!!  Whew!

 

I came in the house and went into the laundry room to switch over the clothes from the washer to the dryer.  When I opened the door I was in for a big surprise.  The hose for the discard water had wiggled its way out of the pipe in the wall and as a result the water drained out all over the floor.  First, though, it went into the litter box right next to the washer and filled it up very full.  Of course, once it was full and the water had nowhere to go and started to flow over the edge, carrying lots of....natural.....stuff.....with it.  It took a lot of time to mop it all up (and a lot of towels!) and get it all sanitized.  It is now done and so far so good.  I've done more laundry and it's been leak-free since then.  Whew!

 

This afternoon Anayla decided she wanted to level the backyard for the pool.  She did a pretty good job, but thought that it was a lot easier than it is.  I told her that now we need to check the sprinklers and see what needed to be capped.  As far as I can see, there is only one.  We did have a gusher, though, on another line and two sprinklers on that line that weren't working.  I put a new sprinkler head on the gusher, turned it on and....it didn't work!!  However, the other two started working.  What the heck?  I still can't figure that one out.  Anayla is now out there trimming back the wisteria and star jasmine to make more room for the pool.  Whew!

I almost forgot!!  I cook from scratch often and I sew.  I have made several things for Alicia and myself. 

 

It's not a lot, but I wanted to throw it out there, lol.

I have come to the realization that I am slightly crunchy.  This is a phrase that a friend of mine uses a lot to describe herself.   It means that she is a more natural person.  I am not going to claim that I am totally into the save-the-planet-forgo-all-conviences thing.  No, but I am far more crunchy than I thought.

 

I am a mostly AP parent.  AP stands for Attachment Parenting.  I didn't know what the term was even while I was practicing it.  I wore my children.  I only wish I had known about slings before my kids were too big for them.  I had the uncomfortable Baby Bjorn, which was okay, but now that I have seen the wonderful slings available I know that I would have given a lung for one of them.  I could have carried my kids for so much longer!!  We have a family bed.  This started originally out of laziness on my part.  I was breastfeeding (also AP) and getting up in the middle of the night to feed was killing me.  So, I started to just bring the baby Alicia into the bed...and she never left.  Reece came along and he joined us.  It wasn't too bad because Mike worked nights so it was usually just the kids and myself.  Now, however, Mike is more likely to come to bed and it is getting CROWDED!!

 

Now, I homeschool.  At the moment it's only Alicia because we decided to wait for Reece as he just turned 5.  I was a little scared but we are adjusting well.  We can do things on her time, which means that we can start school a little later in the day.  This is important because she is a little bit grumpy in the morning and can focus much better after being up for an hour or so.  I let her decide which subject she wants to work on.  We hit them all, but I am not going to say something like, "English and reading first, Social Studies second..." and so on.

 

I am a little less crunchy in other parts of life.  I clean with vinegar and baking soda (not together), but I also still use chemical cleaners.  We aren't vegetarian, although I have been in the past and still cook lots of vegetarian dishes, but we don't eat unclean meats, either.  I vaccinate my children.  I had Reece circumcised.  That wasn't a religious thing, but more of a health issue.  Mike and I saw far too many old men having the procedure done because they got infections when they could no longer care for themselves the way they should.

 

I will probably never drive a car made to save the planet, unless that is the only choice out there.  I'm sorry, but I researched the Chevy Tahoe and the hybrid is $20,000 more just because it is environmentally friendly.  My old van gets about 24 miles to the gallon, which I think is pretty good, and I own it free and clear.  I use CFL lightbulbs because they last longer, but now I worry about the disposal of them.  I recycle my bottles and cans.  Our city requires that we separate and rinse our recyclables so I figure I may as well get paid for the effort instead of them getting the cash.  I mean, I have to pay the five cent deposit so I may as well get it back, right?  I call it my mocha money.

 

Anyhow, I guess I'm a little bit crunchy and a little bit....rock and roll?  (insert canned laughter here)

It just doesn't seem right.  Almost every night, when I am supposed to be sleeping but cannot (surprise, surprise), I have all sorts of blog ideas racing through my head.  Snappy titles.  Wonderful allegorical stories.  Publish-worthy material!

 

As you can see, it doesn't make it here.  Perhaps I should start sleeping with my laptop.

I have my orientation tomorrow morning for the homeschooling!! I am so excited - and trepidatious!  I have no clue what to expect, but I am looking forward to starting my new journey. 

 

I have to admit, it will also be nice to spend a morning away from the daily chores and cooking...hehehe.

I took the leap today - I enrolled Alicia in the homeschooling program through Hickman Charter School.  I took her with me so that she could see how long the ride is (the map said 20 min, but it's more like 30) and what the school looks like.  She declared the school to be very large, which is funny to me because it really isn't, but in comparison to the Adventist school she attended before it is pretty big.  They seem extremely nice there and I can't wait for her to start the program.

 

Next Tuesday I get to go to my orientation for the program.  I will hear an overview, pick up the curriculum and have some "classes" with the math and reading teachers.  I assume that I also get the teacher assignement that day.  Each child/family is assigned a teacher that they report to once a week.  Alicia will also be paired with a reading specialist to help get her back up to speed.  I think she's doing great, but they'll decide that, I guess, officially. 

 

I can't wait to start this new chapter in our lives!

 I promised it so here it is.  On July 16th I took Anayla and Alicia to see the Jonas Brothers.  It was Alicia's first concert and she was soooo excited!  One of the radio stations had some sort of contest going on and there were tons of vehicles with their windows painted.

 

Of course, we didn't see these right away because it took us FOREVER to get there!  We left the house before 3:30 and didn't get to the venue until right before the show was supposed to start, at 7 pm.  When I bought the tickets, it said N. Cal. and I thought it was in the Bay Area, but I got the amphitheatre confused with another one.  This one was out in the middle of nowhere, above Sacramento.  It probably would have taken about 2 hours, maybe 2 1/2, but there was roadwork on I-5 that could not be avoided.  After that we hit 70 where there was more roadwork and we traveled at the brisk pace of 20 mph.

 

Finally, after snail-paced traffic and a detour, we came upon the entrance.

We found our parking spot and walked to the amphitheatre in a swirl of dust.  The first thing we saw upon entry was the tour bus.  Alicia thought that the band might be in there, but of course they weren't.  It was hard to convince her, though.  However, they allow fans to sign the bus and had paper taped to it so that even more fans could sign.  I got some pictures of the girls in front of it.  They were getting really excited by now!

   

We hit the bathroom (because it was a loooong drive up!)  and then went to find our seats.  They weren't bad...we were pretty much in the middle.  We were in the sun, pretty much everyone was, and we commenced to our waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting some more. 

Finally, there was movement on the stage.  The opening act was starting.  It was Demi Lovato, the girl from their Disney TV movie "Camp Rock".   She wasn't bad.  We didn't know any of her songs, though, so we just kind of sat and listened to her.

 That's her in the red coat in the 100+ degrees.  She finally took her coat off and said it was hot.  Duh!!

 

She played for about 45 minutes and then we had to wait some more for the set and instruments switched out.

 Wow.  One can really see the gray hair!!!!

 

We got a little bit bored...

 

 

We're angels!!  We don't show up on film, just like Nick Cage in "City of Angels"!!

 

 

I guess I was wrong; it must have been the flash.

 

 

Finally, FINALLY, the headliners came on.  By then it was dark and pictures were really hard to get.  Of course, all of the young, waving, teenaged arms didn't help our view any.   So, due to no flash and being jostled, the shots I got were really, really poor.  I'll post them anyway, for your viewing tortu...I mean enjoyment.

 

 

They had a lot of pyrotechnics in their show.  Also lasers.  And a stage that could bring up a grand piano.  And these small discs they chained themselves to that lifted them up about 25 feet above the stage...

 

 

 

 

 

I can't really describe the pictures to you because obviously, they are too blurry, haha!!

 

I have a video, though.  I actually have a longer one, but this doesn't support it.  Ah, well.

 

 

Once the concert was over, at around 10, we headed out to the parking lot and just sat.  I have never seen such slow traffic leaving a venue!  We actually sat in the van for half an hour, listening to the radio, and watched people pull out of their parking spots and race toward the exit and then....just sit there.  They actually did not move an inch for at least half an hour and had their engines running the whole time.  It was ridiculous. 

 

There was a young girl who was desperate for attention - she probably was ignored by her father - who was dancing and dancing in the parking lot.  The debacle was ridiculous and I refused to play into her ploy by taking pictures so I can't show you what an idiot she looked like.  She's probably on Youtube because her friends were taping her.  Just look for "Spaz dancing in parking lot at Jonas Bros. concert" or something like that.  You may see my van!

 

Finally I noticed that the other exit seemed to have some movement.  We started the van and headed out.  I decided not to go home the same direction we had come due to all of the construction.  I saw a sign that said "Roseville, 27 miles".  Dang, we were waaaaay out of Sacramento!!  We headed out.  Traffic did not move very quickly on this 2 lane highway.  We stopped for gas because I had no idea the next time I would see civilization.  Eventually, we were on a highway.  We found Rocklin.  We found Roseville.  I decided I did not want to hit I-5 since Southbound was closed.

 

I decided to trust my internal compass, which rarely drives me wrong.  I got off on an exit that said Sunrise.  It took some guessing, but it eventually did lead to Sunrise Ave.  We drove through downtown Sacramento, which was very eerie at midnight.  We hadn't had dinner so we stopped at Burger King and had some so-so food, but it was the only thing open at that hour.

 

Pretty soon I realized that Sunrise was exactly what I needed because it would lead me to Grant Line Road, which would take me to 99 at Galt and I would have bypassed all of the freeway work.  Great!!

 

Except that it was later and later and I was sooooo tired.  I called Mike, hoping that the talking would help me stay awake.  The girls were sound asleep.  I was beginning to wish that I had set it up with Aunt Betty and Uncle Gene that I would stay the night with them and drive home in the morning.  Comfort Inn, Holiday Inn, Motel 6....I rushed by all of them, wistfully dreaming of stopping and renting a room for the rest of the morning.

 

Finally I called Mike again and said I could not safely make it home.  I pulled over at Pelandale and parked behind Denny's.  Mike and Khori came up and drove us the rest of the way home.  I couldn't make it from Modesto to Turlock, I was THAT tired.  We stumbled through the door at 3 am and went to bed.

 

What a great night and a great first concert for Alicia.