Ouch!

Grace had trouble with her braces this week while we are at the cabin and a long way from her orthodontist. The wire on the bottom slipped and was constantly poking her in the back of he mouth. She lived with it for a couple days but it became too painful to leave it.

Being a full service Dad, Jim proceeded to do some ortho work - he removed all the rubber bands and the wire and solved the problem. Now its the orthodontist's problem to fix it all up next week.

Rescue Mission

When we stopped for a snack on our snow shoe hike, Murray decided to run down a steep hill chasing the snow he was knocking down the hill. When he got about halfway down, he got stuck in the deep snow. Grace and Marty headed down to help dig him out.



They got him out and pushed him up the hill. But then they needed help getting Gracie unstuck! Drew went down to help dig her out. All were saved!

Snow Shoe Clark's Peak Trail

Yesterday we went into Yosemite to do a little snowshoeing. We went on a trail that was 3 miles round trip but we only did a little over two. The powder was about 2 feet deep. So you had to take a step, sink two feet, lift up your foot two feet and take another step....just to sink two feet again. It was rough going. And I was worried about the dogs. Daisy is getting old and its hard on her. And Murray kept getting snow packed in his feet. So we made the good decision to stop and turn around - but not before having a snack and a beer.




Ahi has the best spot for snow shoeing - look at the back pack on Jim's back! It's too cold for her and she high centers in the deep snow, so she rides on Jim's back. She just sits there and looks around the whole time. She is a good little dog.





Murray was all ready to go before we even got out of the car. He loved it!




The views out on a trail after a fresh snow are unbelievable. And it is so quiet and peaceful....except for the antics of crazy Mur-dog.

Post snow shoe

After our snow shoe trip, we had a little picnic and played in the snow.




Grace and Drew dug out a fort and made an escape tunnel.



Drew seemed to be coming out the escape tunnel the same way he tried to be born.....butt first!

Snow Play

We went and played in the snow in a rainstorm earlier in the week. This is a pic, during a break in the rain, of Tina and 4 of the kids she took care of in her daycare. They are now teenagers and friends of Tina's!



This is Mad Dog and Grace hanging with the snowman I made. All these kids have been friends since birth. It's so cool to have friends that far back in your life.

The Dirty Life

I just finished the book, "The Dirty Life" by Kristin Kimball. It is about a lady who is a writer living in NY who interviews a farmer and falls in love with him She leaves everything behind to start an organic farm that provides fresh meat, eggs, dairy products, fruits, herbs and veggies to their members. It was a super interesting book and well worth the investment of time. I learned a lot about farming, farm animals and life in a small community.

It is amazing that a book can make you think so much. It really made me more committed to not buying things just because you "want them". There is so much waste in that. We all need to use our "things" until they are worn out. It's hard on the busy life we all lead, but if we can all do small things, they add up.

Anyway - give the book a read - its well worth it!

Black and Tan

The El Dorado Hills Gang gave Jim and Grandpa Tom this for xmas. They are waiting for it to get cold!

Xmas Eve

We had fondue for xmas eve dinner.

* Oil for beef fondue
* Mushroom fondue - dip in sausage
* Crab fondue
* Cheese fondue

We also had spinach salad and chocolate fondue for dessert!

Fancy!

My mom gave Mimi this outfit for xmas. She looks so cute in it that a little boy came up to her in Walmart and said, "I like your dress"! She is 4 years old and already has a stalker!

Oh Murray....

Last time we were at the cabin, Murray was visiting and there was that unfortunate incident involving the dishwasher. Remember? The bottom drawer got caught on his collar and ended up being dragged halfway across the cabin....Murray thought it was chasing him.

Since then, the dishwasher has not been getting the dishes cleaned. Today we emptied it, got out the manual and looked around at what might be wrong. We couldn't tell for sure but thought that it might just be getting old. Jim did some research on the internet and we thought it might cost $200 to get someone to take a look at it. It's about 15 years old, and although it does not get much use, it is an elderly dishwasher. So Jim started researching new ones.

This is where I come in....queue the music and picture me in my rescue hero cape..... I start looking and I use my spatial relationship skills (those who know me, know that those are my weakest skills of all!!!!) and I realize the bottom drawer was in backwards!!!!!

APPLAUSE!!!!!

I fixed it! And I earned some respect after the Christmas tree debacle.

Francis

This is Francis, our xmas tree. Drew and I put it up by ourselves, while Jim sat and watched --- and shook his head. We ended up getting it stuck in the stand, broke the stand getting it out and got needles EVERYWHERE!

Jim keeps forgetting his name and calls him Fernando. I think poor Francis is having an identity crisis!

Dog status

My lab is getting old....

She is getting more and more tired from hikes and we have to give her pain medication even after a short hike. Then she likes to lay in front of the fire and soak up the warmth.

My chiweenie is getting younger....

She is crazy! We go out hiking and she disappears --- off chasing wild animals. She comes back when we call her and she is huffing and puffing! She has no sense. Plus she sleeps thru all the danger of giant waves!

New Melones

We are up at the cabin for a little R and R. On Tuesday, when there was a break in the weather, we went fishing at New Melones Lake. When I say break in the weather, I mean it was not pouring rain, but it WAS windy and cold.

We spent a couple hours fishing and hiking. And then we started heading to another spot in the lake. As we were going full speed, we hit a submerged log! It was like an earthquake on the boat! We quick, drove close to shore in case it punctured a pontoon. All seemed well, but we decided it was time to head back.

As we turned the corner, we were taking on 3 foot waves! It was scary! I was starting to consider waking Gracie up and having us all put on our life vests. Luckily we made it back safe.

Grace and Ahi never woke up thru the waves!

Crazy place

My work is the craziest place. In the last week, I have seen:

* A guy walking aroudn the offie in his socks
* A guy practicing his juggling in the cafeteria
* A woman dressed like a hooker

I might as well be at an airport!

Wins!

Drew's high school soccer team has won all four games they have played so far this season. Sure beats the Jr High team last year, that lost every game! They have three games this week, so let's hope for more wins.

In the pics, Drew is the goalie in grey and black.

Upside Down Dog

Jim went upstairs this morning and was greeted by an upside down dog on our bed! The dogs had a doggie play date last nite and were extra tired this morning!

Girlie Friends

A very brave mom brought her daughter, Grace and two of their other friends (Bug and Kayla) to a local farm that has sledding, ziplines, ice skating, etc, last nite.

When I asked the mom for an update on how it went, this is what I got:

"They skated, tricycle raced and sledded. The indulged me and went on a horse drawn carriage through the lights display….YIPPEEE. It was so cute... we were buggying along with our hot chocolate. I think they had a blast with the tubing.


The real hilarity is their conversation. A carful of girls and no Justin Bieber, shopping at the mall, cute boys… It was:

---isn’t Couture having an amazing rookie season (a SJ Sharks player)

---we need to kick some butt in indoor soccer

---who suffers from constipation!"

I couldn't be prouder of Grace - she picks some GREAT friends!

Murray the Houseguest

Mur-dog is with us today because his mom and dad are working from 9 to 9 today and that is too long for a doggy to be alone.

This morning it was WWF wrestling between him and Ahi. This afternoon it was tug-o-war with Daisy.

Happy Wokday

For Drew's bday next week he wants a Chinese Banquet for dinner. So I purchased this wok so we can have:

Fried rice
Schezuan chicken
Eggplant and tofu
Chow mein
Egg rolls
Wonton soup
Napa cabbage Chinese salad

We are fired up about our new wok - lots of discussion about why we need one and how it cooks differently. Can't wait to use it!

Denied!

I went to give blood today and was DENIED becasue my iron was low - that never happens!

Not sure what to think about that....

Ripples of Kindness

This morning I came into work extra early so that I could work a secret mission...

My company encourages random acts of kindness. And to encourage the ripples of kindness, they have a few employees place gift cards all around the campus. The cards come in bundles of two....one for the person who found the bundle and one for that person to give away!

So at 6 am, I was wandering around in a building and placing the gift cards in place for others to find them, including:

* Taped to the back of a conference room door
* In a copy machine
* In a microwave oven
* In the fridge
* In a phone booth

I have another whole bag of them to hide at lunchtime!

All things goofy

The Thursday Nite Dinner Club had a white elephant party this week. The instructions were:

1. Dig to the depths of your closet, pantry or garage and find the most hideous item you can locate!
2. Give it a little spit shine.
3. Wrap it in beautiful paper and bows to disguise is heinous nature.
4. Bring it with cheer to the white elephant party.
5. No money could be spent on the items.

The gifts and the stories related to them were hilarious!

A beautiful fur jacket came from my mom who recently purchased it thinking it was great! I took one look at it, declared it hideous and identified it to be perfect for the white elephant party! It was a hit with lots of stealing action. In the end, Cindy won it but said she would share it with anyone who wanted it for future pimp costumes.

The butt pic is of Kyle's new cans of skoal coppenhagen tobacco! We found four cans of it in our outside fridge! We can only guess that it came from one of Jim's fishing buddies. This gift led to stories of everyones first try of chew....and the subsequent vomiting stories! And around Kyle's wrists are his new sleeve holder uppers - beautiful gold in color, you push your sleeves up and these devices hold them in place.....they also rip off arm hair! Which led to random screaming coming from Kyle.




A freaky mexican marionette was my prized gift for the nite. And imagine my surprise when I went to bed and found it UNDER my covers! Thanks Marty and Drew.

Lucky Alex became the proud owner of a box full of used tupperware...some with and some without lids! She found one with multiple compartments and decided it was a gem and was using it for her lunch!

A good time was had by all!

Straight?

Yesterday I was at the gym and when I got done working out I went into the locker room and saw this gal all dressed and ready for work but she was still working on her hair. It looked like she was straightening it.

Then I went and tool a shower - came back and she was still straightening it.

Then I put on my makeup - she was still straightening it.

Ironed my clothes and got dressed - still straightening it!

Dried and curled my hair - still straightening it!

Put on my shoes and jewerly - still straightening it!

By that time, I left. Didn't have a chance to go back at lunch and see if she was still there.

x-rated water polo

The Singapore National Water Polo team is getting all kinds of grief for their swimsuits! Their official made the statement that the "crescent moon" was supposed to be located more off center!

Brrr....

It is 29 degrees here this morning....which is cold for us! The dogs outside water bowl had a sheet of ice over the top of it! Here are the dogs snuggled up together for warmth. Actually, it's just Ahi that needs the warmth - Daisy is a big hairy labrador!

Morning Hike

Beautiful day in the mountains today. Went out for a hike behind the cabin. The creek had a lot of water from yesterday's snow and rain.

Snow Day

We went up to the snow yesterday and played around for a few hours. The dogs ran like mad and were very tired when we got home. We had soup for lunch - see pic with very innovative lid!

Thanksgiving

We had a great thanksgiving at my folks with my inlaws and my aunt and uncle from Kentucky. We were in charge of desserts. This is a caramel apple upside down cake that I made and a pumpkin pie that Gracie made.

Drew did the prayer for the first time and it was amazing! The prayer itself was great and the confidence he showed brought tears to my eyes.

When it rains it pours....

It is a miracle that we are as productive as we are with the introduction of technology into all facets of our lives. Within the last 24 hours:

* My cell phone stopped receiving texts from any verizon phones
* Our laptop was returned (completely rebuilt) from HP customer service
* My RSA token for work stopped working
* Our home telphone lines has a constant hum

Lots of time spent talking to customer service or trouble shooting.

Hilarious!

I was looking for a new fleece jacket for Ahi (she gets cold in the winter) and I saw this pic and laughed out loud! I can just see Ahi and Daisy wearing this get up. And looking quite disgruntled about it!

Stir Fried Eggplant

This is delicious!


3 TBSP of oil (about)

1 package of extra firm tofu, cut into chunks

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 lb Japanese eggplant, cut into 1 by 3 strips ( I usually use three eggplants – I go heavy on eggplant and light on peppers)

1 red or green pepper cut into 1 inch pieces

1/3 cup soy sauce

2 TBSP of sugar

2 TBSP oyster sauce

¼ cup fresh basil, cut up in strips



Spray cookie sheet with pam spray. Cut up tofu put on cookie sheet and then spray tofu with pam. Broil for 7 mins on high. Flip tofu over and broil another 7 minutes until lightly browned.



While tofu is browning, cook garlic, eggplant and peppers in oil until softened to the consistency you like – about 10 min.



Add soy sauce, sugar and oyster sauce. Cook 2 more min. Add tofu and stir. Top with basil and serve over steamed rice.

Spread the Kindness

I was chosen by Yahoo! to participate in their "How Good Grows thru Ripples of Kindness" campaign. Basically they give me a hundrdd dollars to give away as I see fit. And then I post my activity on their kindness site:

http://kindness.yahoo.com

I am going to double their money by putting $100 of my own money into the kindness pool.

I am thinking up good things to do with the money - let me know if you have any suggestions!

itchy lips

Gracie and I went yesterday afternoon to get a flu shot.

I didn't think anything of it as we have had shots in the past. But 15 minutes after the shot, I started having an allergic reaction! Apparently, there is some type of latex involvement in the flu shot and I have a latex allergy. My lips started itching just like they do if I am around balloons, rubber chickens or rubber gloves!

I took some benedryl and the itching stopped.

Not sure what this means for next years flu shot.

"Holey" Moley

I took Daisy's stitches out yesterday because it had been 10 days....and then last nite, one of the wounds opened up into a gaping hole! UGH!!! Back to the vet this morning....

Eeeeewwwww!

When we were having dinner with my bro and family this weekend, he was telling us stories of these bugs they have in El Dorado Hills that come out of their drains. We had never seen what they were describing and insisted they send us a pic. Here it is!

What makes it worse is they said it scurries like a rodent!

Rasberry Churro

We went to Cochina Michocana in Oakdale last nite and had rasberry churros with vanilla ice cream. It was DELICIOUS - sort of like a gourmet churro! Who would have thought of such a thing?

Soccer Update

Drew made the soccer team - he is playing JV - which he is happy about. He wanted to play with JV instead of varsity because all his friends are on JV. Plus people kept telling him he would get more playing time on JV.

He is practicing really hard and getting super beat up. He has a turf burn on his forearm that gets torn off everyday. He had to take a day off last week because he got a deep muscle bruise in his thigh and could barely walk. He took one day to rest and ice and was better.

He likes all the perks for high school athletes - trainers, someone getting your water, etc.

I am not sure I want to watch him play this year - I don't want to see him get beat up in goal!

Daisy Update

Daisy is healing fine from her accident. She is back to her normal activity and even went for an off leash hike this morning.

Here is Mimi.....

My beautiful niece!

what the cluck?

who gave me this cold????

Day of the Dead

Here is the cake that Gracie and Bug made this morning. They decided to each decorate one half of the cake. The theme is "Day of the Dead". Odd, I know but the theme started with tombstone sprinkles that we had for Halloween.

Lazy butts

Thank goodness I bought the GIANT couch - it allows all 4 kids to spread out!

Morning Chaos!

I had a house full of kids this weekend while Jim was out crabbing for opening weekend.

This morning, Gracie and her friend, Bug, got up and started making a cake!

Drew and his friend, Chad, got up and decided they needed pizza and potstickers for breakfast!

Outcome

Ten stitches and a very sleepy dog!

Daisy vs Polar 120

Last nite when Jim got home from picking up Drew and a buddy from soccer, they were all alarmed to find a gaping wound in the side of Daisy Mae! They were suppose to be meeting us at the ice rink for dinner but instead called me in a panic to report the injury. Jim - who never worries about anything - was worried about this!

The pic makes it look better than it actually was!

We decided that it was not life threatening so we would not go to the emergency vet on a Friday nite but would wait til morning. Jim proceeded to administer first aid - see the pic with the tape around Daisy's middle. And the boys did some CSI work to figure out what happened to her. They were not able to solve the mystery.

They pieced Daisy Mae together and came down to the ice rink for some dinner. And while at dinner we were emailing pics of the wound to Tina's friend who is a vet in So Cal. She advised it needed stitches.

When I got home, I was alarmed by the size of the wound! But still decided it could wait til the morning.

Jim and I went out into the backyard to do our own CSI work. Jim quickly found the site of the injury: a polar 120 cooler with a sharp hinge. She must have run by it at great speed - probably on the way to bark at the mail man!

She was fine all nite and left the wound alone because I told her to! (She is a good dog) But she still wanted to lick it so she licked her leg instead.

This morning I took her to the vet as soon as they opened and I had to leave her there to be sedated, cleaned and stitched up!

My poor baby. More pics to come later.

Kale and Swiss Chard

One question: Who eats these?

I eat some strange veggies.....but wont eat these! Nasty!

Phil the Dog

This morning while walking the dogs, I saw my neighbor who always walks with her dog, “Phil”. She is a grumpy old lady who always scowled at us...until the day I rescued Phil when she got out in 105 degree weather and was running around the neighborhood panting like crazy. I rescued her and brought her into the air conditioning and kept her for 6 hours until they got home.

I rescued Phil one other time when she got out. By that time, she knew a good thing, so when she got out, she just came straight to my front door and sat on my porch!

This morning the lady was walking alone.

I approached her and asked where Phil was...and she started crying. Phil died on Saturday after having a tumor that made her cough. The lady was crying and crying and telling me all the details...which made me cry too. SO sad. But to think...she went from grumpy old lady to a lady that would cry while telling me about her dog!

The love of dogs brings people together.

High School Soccer

Drew has been conditioning with the high school soccer team for the last month. But, officially, the tryouts began yesterday.

I was surprised when he came home last nite and reported that they put him with the varisty team for tryouts. There is only one other freshman that they also did that for - and Drew reports that "he is an awesome player". So that bodes well for Drew.

So there are two goalies trying out with the varsity team - Drew and a kid who helped coach Drew when he was in the 7th grade and the goalie for the Jr High team. And Drew really liked him - so it would be a great experience if it works that they could play together. The other goalies - 1 freshman, 1 sophmore and 1 junior are trying out with the jr varsity team. No shortage of goalies!

I will keep you posted - I don't know where he will end up - but whatever happens, it seems like its been a good experience so far!

Halloween