2 hours = 30 degrees

Sunday, we headed to the coast where it is much cooler especially with the morning fog. We first stopped at Pismo Beach, it was a bit foggy and chilly. We had lunch at Brad's. The clam chowder was yummy! The girls wanted to play in the sand so we headed to Avila Beach where I've heard it can be warmer. And it was. It is an awesome little beach, great for kids. It looks pretty new because there is alot of construction going on. This is because of the Unical oil spill years ago and so now they are rebuilding the whole town. A local told me it used to be an older beach and was very cute. She didn't seem to think the 'new' beach is as charming as it used to be.

A hermit crab just as he was about to get swept into the water!

The 'rock' at Morro Bay.

On the way home Monday, the girls and I stopped at a little farm/market with fresh produce, pick your own berries, and various animals...goats, sheep, roosters... This is my favorite picture.

Here are the girls picking raspberries, they had so much fun!

I have a confession

I am the mother of a biter...yes, it's true.

We've been having problems with Claire biting out of anger and frustration, usually directed towards Olivia.

Well, yesterday, it happened, I was horrified. We were at the park for my moms group's Spring Fling enjoying fun and good food. Then I looked over to check on the girls and I see a mom following Claire looking for her mom (that would be me). This mom saw an older boy being rough with Claire and saw Claire bite him on the arm. I was horrified as she has never bitten anyone outside of our house.



I scolded her telling her that she cannot bite and she started bawling. I carried her over to the boy and his mom and I apologized. I explained that I heard they were being rough and she bit him and that it was something we were working on. She was completely understanding of the whole incident and even confided in me that her son, in fact, used to be a biter.


I further tried to remind Claire that she needed to use her words and tell someone 'no, I don't like that' and come find me.

Tomatoes anyone?

So here are some updated pictures of my tomato plants. My Big Beef plant was getting so heavy, I found it on the ground today, I had to reinforce it with a couple of rebar. You will see I have one tomato already turning red...sort of. Wow, they grow fast here, it is amazing!

What season are you in?

When I grew up along the Gulf Coast, we had hurricane season in summer; when we lived in the Bay area, we had the rainy season during winter; when I lived in Dallas, we had thunderstorm/hail season; near southern California....we have fire season.


Here are pictures from a fire smoldering near Gorman, California as we were driving back from L.A. on I-5.

Fun in L.A.

Disney parks (of course). We wanted to go to the beach, too, but it was too chilly on the coast so we ended up at the zoo.

The girls LOVED playing in the water at the California Adventure park, they got soaking wet. I planned ahead, though and brought extra clothes.

Although Olivia wanted to play in the water, she did NOT like to be in wet clothes.
Fun in the hotel room:

At the zoo:

A Star is Born

While at Disneyland, we went to the Aladdin storytelling in Adventureland. The girls enjoyed sitting on the 'magic carpet' and watching Aladdin and Jasmine acting out their story. Olivia was chosen to play the part of the evil 'Jafar'!

Little Foxes

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Los Angeles zoo. They had a special event about foxes so the girls had their faces painted. The zoo was really nice, we joined so we will be back. We didn't get to see it all, hopefully we will see more next time.

Flip That Room

We are busy this weekend updating Claire's room into a Big Girl room from a nursery. When we moved in, we put her in the yellow room as we thought that would buy us some time before we would have to paint. It went well with her (previously Olivia's) Hey Diddle, Diddle theme.

I took a picture here as I was taking the wall decorations down. Yes, I painted that picture of the cow jumping over the moon.

Here is a picture during painting. The green (Sherwin Williams Great Green) you see is actually the 2nd color I chose. I chose a lighter green (Sherwin Williams Gratifying Green) earlier but it was too bluish so I ended up switching to a darker and more yellow green. I think it will look nice with pink. I actually got Claire some bedding from Pottery Barn Kids called Cherry Blossom. It's got a pink background with green leaves and some other colors.

I finished painting, it looks better in person, I promise. Tomorrow, I will have to paint the trim. The room already looks so much better, it had really taken a beating from the previous owners.

It's day!

6:23 a.m. pst

Our door creaks open. I hear the pitter patter of little feet. And "It's day! Mommy. Daddy, it's day!" I feel something climbing onto our bed.

It's Claire. Although she has a blackout shade in her room, the light creeps in through the sides and apparently is contributing to her increasingly earlier wakings.

She is 2 1/2 years old and has now started climbing out of her crib more and more. She is getting her new 'big girl' bed on Monday...finally.

We will be spending Memorial Day weekend painting her room.

Sesame Street Stomp

We went to 'Elmo Makes Music' Wednesday night. My neighbor was trying to get rid of their 4 tickets because his wife and kids ended up going out of town. We paid him for a bit less than they were worth and they were great seats. Claire had a great time, pointing and clapping....as usual, Olivia just sat back to watch. Olivia just doesn't get as enthusiastic about these things, but she enjoys going.

The girls learned that 'everything makes music' so they have been 'making' music ever since! Banging on walls, slapping their knees, singing, you get the picture...

Claire tells a joke

Claire: 'Knock, knock'

me: 'Who's there?'

Claire: 'Banana.' giggle

me: 'Banana who?'

silence.

I think she forgot the punchline!

bows, bows, bows

I made these yesterday afternoon, aren't they cute? They're not perfect, but I'm donating them to a fundraiser. My moms group is having a raffle to raise money for an elementary school in need of playground equipment. I won't get to go to the 'spring fling' because we will be out of town.

Growing a Garden

I've been trying to garden a little. That's what I love about California, people here really know how to garden. And it's fun to grow stuff!

While my in-laws were here helping out after I had surgery, my father-in-law helped us with the yard. We had this huge stubborn birds of paradise we were trying to dig up next to our house. We also wanted to move a camelia to a shadier spot (sadly, it did not survive the move). So my father-in-law finished digging those plants up for us and transplanted them.

Here are the birds of paradise, okay the first set of plants in the first picture don't look like they are doing so well, but I'm hoping they will 'take' and look better later in the year. The second one is a plant I moved about a month ago or so.

Yesterday, I finally planted some herbs in my 'herb garden'. This is where the birds of paradise and camelia used to be. In the fall, I'm also going to grow peas here. I'm thinking of planting some flowers around the edge to make it look nice.

Right now, the herbs I am growing are mint(in the pot), basil, italian parsley, sage, oregano, cilantro, and rosemary. I also want to plant dill, I've heard it attracts ladybugs and ladybugs are good for your garden!

Oh and I also have 2 tomato plants..a better boy and big beef. It's fun to see the tomatoes growing!

The only trouble I have is with the snails that like to eat my plants. A mom from my mommy board who happens to be a farmer gave me some advice. She said I could use eggshells, set them out to dry then crush and scatter around the plants. She also suggested some traps, I might try this too. You fill an empty can with some beer and bury it in the ground with just enough room for them to move in. They are attracted to the beer and then drown.

A Baby Blanket

Well, you know, I started knitting several months ago and have been trying to learn about patterns and such. I found a free pattern for a baby blanket that seemed perfect for a beginner. Ha! I've been working on it for months and I'm only about 1/5 of the way through it. My problem is I want the blanket to be perfect and I kept messing up the stitches and I had to unravel several rows and start over several times. I think it's good practice though because I've made alot of progress in the last couple of weeks.

I'm not sure who will get this blanket, I have lots of friends that are having babies and my sister-in-law is having one this summer. Of course, this one will have to go to a girl. Maybe I should do yellow next time!

I'm thrilled I can see

I just wanted to follow up with more about my surgery. It's been a few weeks. I had my 1 week follow up appointment about a week and a half ago. I was at 20/20 with both eyes...20/20 in my left eye and 20/35 in my right eye. Before surgery my vision was 20/200 (20/400 in my left eye and 20/200 in my right eye). I will go back in late September for another follow up. I was told it could take about 3 months for my right eye to catch up with my left eye since I had PRK in my right eye. I'm happy, though, I don't have to wear glasses for driving, I can see if I get up in the middle of the night.

In case you were wondering why I had PRK in my right eye, it was due to a risk of ectasia. The shape of my eye put me more at risk for developing ectasia after Lasik and it is a condition very difficult to treat. I had 4 opinions total and found a doctor which offered me the best option.

Easter

Here is a picture from Easter and a couple from an Easter egg hunt. The picture of me with the girls is taken in our backyard, we have lots of roses.

The girls enjoyed the egg hunt in the park that was organized by my moms group. The girls did 3 egg hunts together...the moms group, church, and a friend's house.

Bye Bye glasses!

I finally did it! I finally had laser vision correction surgery yesterday. It is amazing to be able to see without glasses.

I was really nervous about the actual surgery and recovery. I was to have Lasik in my left eye and PRK in my right eye. This was the safest option for the shapes of my eyes. The PRK is more painful and the recovery is longer, but it is so worth it.

Thank God for valium, though. They gave me a valium to take a half hour before my appointment and when it was time to get on the operating table, I didn't care that they were going to cut my eye and laser on my eye.

Anyway, I just wanted to share the excitement I am feeling of being able to wake up and see!

Host Family

For the past couple of weeks we were a host family for 2 teenage girls from Japan. We had H the 1st week and M the 2nd week.

Here is a photo of the first group of students at the Sayonara party they put on for us.

Here I am with 'the girls'. H was really hard to get to know, her English was really limited and being only 14, she was a bit immature. She was more interested in shopping than looking at the majestic Giant Sequoias, including the General Sherman tree (the largest tree in the world). Nonetheless, we all had fun.

Here is the 2nd group of Japanese students. We had M for a whole week, she was 16 and had a better command of English than the other Japanese students we have hosted.

Here we are making pizzas. M loved helping the kitchen and learning about American foods. She was very enthusiastic about being here and one of her first questions to me was 'Can I call you Mom?' I loved that she really enjoyed her stay and she didn't seem very homesick.

We took her to the beach in Ventura where we built sandcastles, the water was too cold to get in.

M's last day, I took them to the local museum and we had a picnic for lunch.

Later that evening we had to take her to the bus that would take her to the airport and then home. I had to literally put her on the bus, she was sobbing and so emotional about leaving. This was the first time (out of 4) we have had a student cry so hard about leaving.