Free Chocolate

Mars is giving away chocolate every Friday. Go to the following website and register and they will send you a free coupon in the mail.

https://secure.realchocolate.com/

We have already received 4 free!

New do

Got a new haircut yesterday. Isn't it cute!

Upgrade!

With our new sectional, we decided we needed a new tv! Drew has been lobbying for one for years! We finally decided to upgrade into the year 2009. We have a 58 inch plasma tv on its way. But that requires a remodel of our built in entertainment center. Here is a pic of the beginning of the remodel project. The hole in the wall makes us think of a fast food drive thru, so we pretend we are driving up while Jim is working and order a burger. Jim plays along by sounding like he is talking thru a bad microphone to take our order!

I love....

Thank you, Mari, for this goofy notepad! The pic looks like Jim when he was 16 and had feathered hair!

what?!?!?

We have rearranged our family room and ordered a new couch. With this new arrangement, we have a sofa table behind the couch. The second day it was like this, I came home from work to find that Drew had made a bed for Ahi - with all the blankets in the house - on top of the table! Not to be left out, Daisy joins Ahi on the bed on the table!

Scholarship

We just got the check for the scholarship that Drew was awarded during the school year! Not a lot but better than a poke in the eye! It was $150 dollars and the agreement was that Drew could use it for lunch money for the coming year. So he has it tucked away waiting to purchase carne asada burrittos, orange chicken and breakfast sandwiches! Not exactly for traditional school needs, but how can one learn on an empty stomach!?!?!

Soon to be former sister in law????

My sister in law is trying to move in on my back up husband - Keith Urban!! She and my brother went to see him last nite in concert and she made these ridiculous claims that he was singing to her, wore a nice new shirt for her, got a hair cut for her... She is clearly delirious because he is MY back up husband and has had that role for over 5 years!

Back off Old Lady D - he is MINE!

What's for dinner?

I am willing to bet a million dollars that you are not having what we are tonite for dinner.

We have some ground meat in the fridge that Jim got from a buddy. When the kids asked what type it was, we all had to guess. We guessed:

* crocodile
* elk
* moose
* snake

Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Finally, I guessed it -- it's bear!

NASTY!!!!

The kids are fired up and asked if we could have bear burgers for dinner tonite. Jim said "yes" and I thought...."I think I will stay at work late tonite!".

CSI San Jose

Auntie Deb and I found a dead deer up on the levee yesterday morning. It had been freshly killed and eaten. I told Jim and the kids about it and of course, they wanted to go check it out.

So last nite after dinner, we all loaded up, picked up two of the kid's friends and checked it out. Jim played the role of "Ducky" from NCIS and tried to determine the cause of death. It took him about 30 seconds to find a bullet hole it the deer's neck! So it looks like it was murdered and then some scavengers took advantage of the situation.

OOOOOMMMMMM

I just did my first yoga class at lunch today. The jury is still out on whether I liked it or not. You see....I am a bit torn. It did not seem like a very good workout....however, I did like the part when you lay on the floor with your eyes closed! And I liked the part when everyone in the class says "ooooommmmmmm" at the same time! It sounds sound melodic.

Roadtrip!

We are starting to plan a roadtrip up highway 4 thru Arnold, Markleeville and then down into the Eastern side of the Sierras. We have never been up that way and thought it would be cool to check in out. There are lots of lakes and acres and acres of National Forest.

So we started talking to the kids about it and they wanted to know if we had to bring our own gasoline! Our kids think that "road trip" means 4 wheeling out in the middle of nowhere! When we said that there would be gas stations where we were going, they were all irritated and said they did not want to go because that's not a "road trip"!

I guess we should have told them up front that this was a MAINSTREAM road trip!

Hangover

Jim and I saw the movie, "Hangover" this weekend and it was hilarious. There was this one character who was sort of chubby and had a full beard. And at one point an asian bad guy referred to him as - "hey you, fat jesus!". I was rolling! It had great one liners. But it was very rated R - no kids should be seeing it.

Gracie - Speedy Quick

Here is a video of Gracie doing her IM in the last meet. She improved her time by 28 seconds! She told me she plans to improve her time by 20 seconds more so that she set a record.

FarmFresh to You

I got my latest delivery of Farm Fresh to You. This was the best box so far, but I am still not sold. The broccoli was stringy and the basil wilted before I could use it, even though I put it in water. The watermelon was delicious but it had seed in it.....I was almost confused when I opened it because it has been so long since I have seen seeds in a watermelon.

I am going to give it another try but changed my deliver to all fruit.

I will keep you posted.

Tuna

Jim and Drew went tuna fishing today. Early reports put the catch at....ONE! That is a lot of effort for one fish! They left at 2:30 am and will be getting home around 5 pm.

Doesn't sound like a fun hobby to me!

Donor Letter

I have always wanted to write a letter to the family that donated my Dad's heart but the timing never felt right. I was always worried about what to say and whether it would open up old wounds for the family. And I didn't want to overstep my Dad and do it if he didn't want it done. So I just sat on the idea - for 12 years. And finally the time felt right and the words came to me.

Here is my letter to our donor family. It went out in the mail today:


July 10, 2009


Dear Donor Family,

It has been 12 years now since you so unselfishly donated the gift of life to my father. I have thought of you often and silently thanked you each time. I have often wanted to write you a letter of thanks but was sensitive to the fact that it might bring you pain. I am hoping that with the passage of time and the positive message that I am sharing; your sorrow might be lightened.

I want you to know how much your gift has meant to our family. My father was 54 years old when he received your family member’s heart. He was very, very ill and would not have survived with out a new heart. At the time he had one grandchild who he was a care provider for, but had became so ill he could no longer care for his grandchild. Today he has 5 grandchildren who he loves to cook for! Without your generosity, those 4 other grandchildren would not know their grandpa or his love of food!

He has been extremely healthy with this new heart and has “given back” by:
• Raising money for the American Heart Association;
• Participating in the Transplant Games (and winning a gold medal) and
• Participating in a heart transplant support group.

The rest of our family is also involved in “giving back” by:
• Raising money for the American Heart Association;
• Giving blood;
• Being signed up as organ donors ourselves and
• Spreading the word about organ donation.

We all “give back” in order to honor your loved one.

There is not a day that goes by that I am not thankful that I still have my Dad in my life and that my children know their grandfather.

Organ donation is a true miracle of life and with your generosity; our life has been immeasurably richer. For this, we thank you.

Best,
Recipient’s Daughter

New Television Show

I have a new tv show that has peaked my interest. And I am not a big tv watcher. It's really sort of sick. But I keep finding myself sucked into it.... It's MTV's new show - "16 and Pregnant". I think it is a fascinating study in teenage behavior and reasoning. And I have wathced it with the kids and used it as a learning moment.

I was especially pleased when Gracie noted on her own that one of the teen dads was useless and not helping at all! Led to a great conversation about how when you are considering who you would like to marry, you need to consider how they will be when you have children. Will they help? Will they feel jealous that you are spending time with a baby? Will they be good providers? It also leads to great discussions about the correct order of life events: high school, college, work, marriage, babies.....

Fingers crossed that they make the right choices when the time comes!

Naptime

I am working from home and just got up to get something to drink and looked over to see that I was missing the scheduled naptime! Why didn't anyone tell me????

Organ donation

In 2006, more than 6,000 transplant candidates - one person every 90 minutes - died while awaiting transplantation. Right now, 18 people die every day waiting for a transplant. Many of these patients may have lived if the families of every medically suitable potential donor had said "yes" to donation. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), across the country there are currently nearly 100,000 individuals waiting for a life-saving organ transplant. As of February 2007, about 20% of the waiting list are children younger than 18 years of age. The need for kidneys tops the list, followed by liver and heart. Transplant hospitals place individuals on the national waiting list after they are given careful medical evaluations. Each month, approximately 500 people in the United States are added to the national waiting list.

If you live in California, make sure you are signed up as an organ donor:

https://www.donatelifecalifornia.org/profile/login/

If you live elsewhere, do a search for organ donor and find out how to sign up.

Fro Yo

Gracie and I made peach frozen yogurt last nite! It was YUMMY! We have an electic ice cream maker. You just throw peaches, yogurt and sugar together and put it in the machine for 25 minutes. Drew said we need to make lots of it and keep in in the freezer at all times.

Book Review - Falling Leaves

Just finished the book "Falling Leaves" by Adeline Yeh Mah. It is a NY Times Bestseller about a Chinese girl born in 1937 who was the unloved youngest child in a rich Chinese family. As Gracie commented when I told her about it, it is like a Cinderella story - complete with evil stepmother. It was a really good story about a dysfunctional family and had a lot of great historical details regarding China and Hong Kong. It was a quick read and well worth the time investment.

Finger Lickin' Fifteen - Book Review

I read the new Janet Evanovich novel, Finger Lickin' Fifteen, over my vacation. And I have to say, that although it was amusing, it is not as good as the previous books in the series. I was a bit disappointed. But it was a good no brainer vacation read.

A Day at River

Yesterday, we went to the river to hang out and get away from the 4th of July crowds at the lake. The river is snow melt so it was COLD. But it was abotu 100 degrees down in the canyon, so it felt good to go in. We also did some rock jumping and fishing (didn't catch a thing). Ahi used the time to relax in a lawn chair.

Freak Accident

We have close friends whose parents live full time in the community where we have our cabin. Their parents names are Mike and Faye. Last week while they were preparing to host their kids and grandchildren for the 4th of July, they started to head into town to do some grocery shopping. They backed out of the driveway with Mike driving and Faye in the passenger seat with her seat belt fastened. Mike stopped the car to get out and get the newspaper and left Faye in the car. For some reason, the car started rolling. The car headed down hill and Faye was able to steer it for a while, even negotiating a turn, while in the passenger seat and trying to jam it into another gear. Finally her luck ran out and she drove the car up an embankment and across the road into a tree and boulders.

She ended up breaking her L1 vertebrae and has been in the hospital for 5 days but will likely be released tomorrow. She will need to be in a brace for 4 months, which hopefully will fix her problem. If not, she may need more treatment. Thankfully she was not hurt worse. It will be a long recovery period but at least she has no paralysis.

Party Animals vs Party Poopers

We went to a great small town 4th of July BBQ on Friday nite. It had acrobatic airplane demonstrations and a horse show. The meat eaters had hot dogs or tri-tip and Jim had to talk the servers into letting me just have a big plate of salad. Apparently they had never even heard of vegetarians and could not possibly consider selling me a salad!

The band was a bunch of old men singing 100 year old country tunes. It didn't stop Jeremy, Tyler, Kayla and Gracie from "cutting the rug" on the dance floor! Drew and Maddie watched them like they were crazy.

Cliff Jumping and Rope Swinging

What is a trip to the lake without jumping off of cliffs and swinging from ropes into the water?

Lake Eleanor

We went on a day hike into Lake Eleanor on Wednesday. Lake Eleanor is right on the inside edge of the northwestern side of Yosemite. It was about a 3 mile hike in. The lake has a super cool dam that has arches to hold the water back. We crossed over the dam and then hiked the river that came out of the over flow. We did some stream fishing and caught some brook trout. It is a beautiful area. We thought it might be fun to backpack in and spend a few days exploring around the area.

Fishing Tournament

We had a little fishing tournament up at the lake. We had two teams: Team Valley Pres (Drew and Kayla) and Team Bon Jovi (Grace and Jeremy). They had 45 minutes to catch blue gill. They could only keep 5 at any given time and they had to be alive when weighed in. The team with the total overall (all 5 fish measured tail to tail) longest 5 fish won $10!

Gracie and Jeremy were the big winners!