The California Welcome Wagon

There was a pretty good sized earthquake today. Welcome back to California! The epicenter was only about 20-25 miles from us and we got a pretty good rumble and shake. Nothing fell down our out of things, but the kids were not too pleased with their introduction to earthquakes. A couple of them came running and crying, Luke just stood there looking at me-- not quite sure what to make of it. I think I've only felt one or two that jolted more than this one.

It was a good chance for me to explain earthquakes and what we're supposed to do during one-- I had totally forgotten that I should do that with these guys now that they're bigger and we're in the land of quakes. Within hours, they were talking about it like it was some kind of roller coaster ride ('It was fun!' and 'I wasn't scared!'), but they weren't so brave in the moment.

I turned the news on right after to show them some of the coverage. Here they are watching the room that the local news station has set up to film during earthquakes (has cameras, set up like office) to see what happens/shakes down. My cell is working now, but for some reason we still don't have a dial tone on our land line.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Alex!

Alex was gracious enough to meet us at Chuck E Cheese's to celebrate his 37th birthday! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. Fortunately, he had his cell phone camera. Unfortunately, cell phone cameras have a long way to go in quality! Here are some of the kids (can you tell?) from that night.

One of Our Favorite Visitors

Addie is definitely a highlight visitor... the kids love her and she is so good to take what they dish out! Here she is after her wagon ride. Luke absolutely loves her... he's crying in this picture because Addie sat on his foot, but a few minutes later when it was time for Addie to leave he was crying about that, too!

The Beach

It has been over a week now, almost two weeks, since we went to the beach to play one day with the Waymeyer cousins and some of their friends. The kids have never really played at the beach since they were too little to have much fun in the sand and waves when we left two years ago. They all really enjoyed it, even Luke! They practiced the feel of surfing with Caleb on his boogie board and played in the sand and waves for a couple of hours. The three younger ones were sleeping within 5 minutes of leaving the beach for home-- they played hard! We hope to go back again, but I'd love any advice on how to clean all the sand off the kids before they get into the car... any experts out there?

Climbing the Water Slide

There is a drainage system on the slope behind our house that Derek has named 'the water slide' and he and the kids have climbed it to go exploring a couple of times. There are three levels of paved drainage runs along the side of the hill that lead to the downward 'slide' part that you can see in the right of the first picture. They go up there and adventure around on the different levels. These pictures were taken when they were on level 2... wayyyyyy up there. I zoomed in so you can see where they are! Notice our lawn in the back picture... parts of it are slowly turning green but I think we'll have to wait until fall to put some seed down. The house had been vacant for 7 months and the lawn is a mess!

Ginger and Crazy Roosters

The first time Anna saw our new house, she noticed the horse you can see from our back yard and her bedroom window. She sits in an open stable so we can see her well anytime she is out. There are other stable/barns up the slope from our house, but this in the only horse you can see all the time. Anna quickly named her Ginger.

Well, Ginger has some rooster friends up there, too. I don't mind roosters, I'm usually up early enough to enjoy their morning wake-up call, but last night one of them went insane. Before I went to bed he started doing his crow and has probably been going all night long every minute or so. The sun has been up awhile now and he is still at it as I type. I think this animal qualifies for medication-- or at least relocation.

This is Ginger in her stall. I took it this morning while I was scanning for the rooster up there.

Little Pleasures

With the sprinkers on now, some of the dead plants around our house are coming to life. One thing I really missed in Arizona were the fragrant Jasmine we had by our front door in California. I was excited to see the things blooming along our front walk are the very same, wonderful smelling thing. A big plus is that the door to the school room opens out to the front and you can have this beautiful smell blow right in! They still need some serious grooming, but they're here already!

This One is for Mr. Mark

Per your request, here's a brief little update...

Alex and Derek finished the floors, with some help from the kids. The kids made snail gardens for all the snails they discovered around our place. It took three trucks full of crates to bring to our new house the stuff that had left our old house in just one truck.

We've had help and visits from Kathy and Addie, Alex, Matt and Brian (Kenny's brothers) to help finish some painting, our friends from AZ who were driving through on their way back home-- the Pati's (yipee, the kids had a blast, and so did we!), and Kathy and Addie are back again tonight for a couple of days to hang out and help us out.

We'll post more pictures later. Enjoy the mini slide show...

We Own a Home

Again! We closed last Wednesday night and have been busy getting ready for the truck with all of our stuff to get here. Derek and Alex put in some flooring, Kathy helped my watch the kids, run errands and clean and I painted faster than I had ever painted before in my life. Not that we were tryting to paint the house before our stuff came, just some areas where big furniture was going and we didn't want to move it again. We have a few partially painted rooms. I'll post pictures when I can.