Before and After

I couldn't take it anymore; I was so tired of not being able to see my sweet Ryanne's face I cut her hair! Ugh! I am so wierd about that. It just about killed me to see the 3-4" of curls falling to the floor. My friend asked if I wanted to keep them so I must have looked pathetic while she was chopping away. Here are 2 before shots of her unruly do!
I mean seriously I couldnt even get a comb through it!
Here she is SO excited about her knew look and ready to dress up for Halloween. I didn't think it was possible for her to be any cuter but now that I can see her beautiful blue eyes and that trade mark gap in her teeth I am certain she'll get away with murder from people.
I think these curls should be illegal! Yup, Dan is going to die when he gets off shift and see's all of her hair gone........bat those baby blues at him Ryanne!! Halloween pictures to follow tomorrow!

Just For Laughs

So this kid all of about 10 or 11 was walking around the neighborhood offering to paint your address on your curb for $10; since I am a huge fan of kids earning money the good old fashioned way (dare I say it, "work") I decided to hire him. After he got the old address all painted over he looked up at me in all his years of kid wisdom and said,"Did you want the same number or a new one?" I didn't want to break his heart so in all the seriousness I could muster I thought for a minute and then said,"na' I think I like the old one!" It was a $10 well spent, I got a newly painted curb and a great laugh. Kids are the BEST!!

A Day At The Museum

Smoke Free Fun

When you are a daddy who has been on fires all week you sleep...........

When you're little girls who have missed their daddy all week you climb on top and watch cartoons! Dan's going to love that I posted this picture. ;)

We decided after Dan's strike team got released we would run for Palm Springs for the day to try and get away from the smoke. We went to lunch and to the Children's Museum which the girls LOVED!! Morgan got a lift from daddy on the pully.We played dress up too! I know, I know you thought I really wore that hat on the average day huh?Chef Morgan served us up some pretend pizza. Really good since thats the closest I have come to pizza in a year! :)

All in all a good time was had. The girls especailly loved painting the old Volkswagone bug which by the way I am sure is going to come back to haunt me. I made it REALLY clear it was the ONLY car I ever wanted to see with paint on it! Did I mention I got suspended my senior year for painting a rivals school letter on their hill? Hopefully the apple falls really far from the tree. More pictured below!! Have a great week everybody!

Guess Who I Met?

I get this phone call last night from Dan Saying,"guess who I met?" I got so excited and yelled "The President?" Dan calmly said,"no." I said,"oh, oh the Terminator!!" Dan was getting frustrated at this point so he yelled out,"no, Clint Eastwood!" As you can imagine I was very confused by this point. Clint Eastwood? I thought you were fighting fires? Dan proceeded to explain that after coming down the hill they came across a movie being made by good ol' Clint and when he heard there were firemen around the set he wanted to meet them and thank them for all of their hard work. Dan is by no means a star struck kind of guy but whether you like Clint or not you have to admit meeting an old time movie legend is kind of cool. Dan's rookies are never going to want to leave his station now that they think this is how crew 222 REALLY lives everyday....cute!

Is The End In Sight?

I took this picture off our back patio last night as the sun was trying to set in the smoke filled sky. Pretty, but unfortuantly really unhealthy.
Dan got to come off the mountain last night after 3 days of fighting fires so the girls and I took him some clean clothes and made his crew some muffins that they were more than happy to take off our hands. :) The girls were really excited to see daddy and since my mother in law was with me everyone was fighting for air space to talk to him as you can imagine. He's tired but hoping to be released on Friday morning if everything calms down.
On the way home I decided I needed to kill a couple of more hours so the girls wouldn't kill each other so we stopped and played video games and ate pizza!
We made the most out of our week being all screwed up, Dan being gone, & we had just some good clean fun indoors away from the smoke! :)

Calm Before The Storm!

Ok, so all weekend I was so excited because we had NOTHING to do. We had nowhere to be (except church) and it was great! We have been SOOOOO busy with swim meets and Dan's races etc. that it felt so great to do nothing. We got up Saturday morning and in anticipation of Dan coming home made this huge breakfast and then sat out on the back patio and enjoyed the warn sun and wind.
The girls were so happy to get to play with their toys which you guessed it included dirt and mud.
We thought is would be nice to invite Dans mom down from Lake Arrowhead for the weekend to hang out with the girls; little did we know what the week would hold for her and thousands of other families. It's funny becuase I kept thinking,"ahhh, this weekend is to calm, to mellow, to delightful. Surely something is coming." I swear I am a "glass is half full" type of person but this weekend I just had this feeling.
So around 6am Monday morning I get a call from my mother in law that she needs to come move in & my husband moved out! Ugh!! I want my cozy, sleep in, make pancakes, watch my girls play in the sun weekend back. Whaaa! Seriously though, I am praying for all you firefighters and wives who hold the fort down. Be strong! And to those of you who may have lost your homes or know someone who did? God is faithful and we will get through this. We're Californians, we're tough!

My Crazy Athletes!

So we decided the swim Gods hate us (joking! Please don't e-mail me about that!) because everytime we have a meet it is raining and COLD! So this is what we do in between swims. We huddle! Here is Ryanne trying to help keep Morgan warm and ham it up at the same time!!
Morgan did really good. She shaved time off of her last free-style and didnt get DQ'ed on the backstroke so we were thrilled for her in that. She got a first place ribbon from last month for her division in the freestyle and she got 2 6th place ribbons for both of her times in her age division this past weekend. Not bad for a kid who has only been on the team for a month and a half. She loves it and we love that she is staying active and having a blast at the same time; now if we could just the weather to work with us for November that would be great. This is one mom who is tired of being wet and cold all day. Ugh! Ready, set, go Morgan go! When they are this little they do their starting dive off the side. She is almost ready to go off the platform as coach Austin has been working with her. Frankly I am fine with her staying on the ground. :) You can see Ryanne in the back ground ready to cheer her sister on.
We went right from Morgan's meet in Redlands to Hermosa Beach where Dan had a race VERY early on Sunday morning. The weather had at least cleared a little bit but as you can see in this photo it is still very dark and very early! But we couldn't miss our traditional good luck before the race hug.
Here is our friend Pastor Chris and Dan as they head out to the starting line. Good luck boys!
Here are Morgan & Ryanne waiting for daddy to cross the finish line. He did it 20 minutes faster this time which amazed us all. Now he is officially hooked. Lucky for us the season is about over so we will get to sleep in a little. :)

pearly whites

So we all had dentist appointments yesterday and I got to thinking' about how Dentist's kind of get the raw end of the deal. I mean think about it; you take the camera to your kids first hair cut, to their first day of school, first big trip, first everything but nobody takes photos at the dentist. So I decided for Ryanne's first cleaning we should document it so we could look back on this monumental day. Plus, I knew deep down she was going to throw a royal fit and I wanted to catch it all on film. I know, I know, mean mom. But here as you can see she looks really happy and sweet; that's only because Dan refused to snap away at the tantrum. Also, notice I am wearing the pink bib? Ya' I pretty much did whatever Ryanne told me to do for that 10 minutes!
By this point we had promised her everything but my car............or did we giver her that as well? You can see the look on her face here where she is re-thinking this whole hygiene thing. Ryanne doesn't do ANYTHING Ryanne doesn't want to do and if it's not HER idea you can forget it!
If you look REALLy close you can see I have my mouth open in the background. I didn't even realize I was doing it till' I saw the photo. Well, we all survived and Ryanne got a thumbs up from the Dr. Everyone's healthy and clean and as far as Ryanne is concerned 6 months till' the next visit isn't long enough. If you have a dentist phobia sorry about the post.

Pumpkin Patch Time

It's that time of year again.........pumpkin time!!! Here is Ryanne cheesin' it up for me
I think Morgan found a keeper
Ryanne, Morgan & me making memories....uhhhh Ryanne over here!!
Morgan & daddy hangin' out at dinner in Oak Glen!
Daddy and his girls...........ahhhhhh.

Run for the Hills

So all last week I could hear this small voice in my head askingme if what I did day in and day out pleased God. At first I was trying to drown it out because I knew full well what that little voice wanted; it wanted change and ugh.......we know how much we all love change right? So anyway after a week or so of the Holy Spirit nudging at me, a few things friends have said and Pastor Chris sharing from Josehps life during the sermon yesterday I decided to think it through more. Ok, so here is my confession; I watch shows that I know don't please the Lord. I used to be really good about filtering these things out and then slowly as Dan would work more overtime and I would find myself alone and bored I would start flipping through shows and checking out things that I knew friends watched and some other shows that I had seen previews for. Before I even realized it I quickly started to care about what was happeing on Greys Anatomy and believe me when I tell you I would not ever have an affair but I loved this show and let's be honest, that's all it's about. I would also watch the gossip shows about the stars and then a friend said in her Blog that she watched them but NEVER gossiped. So it got me thinking,"why then do I watch a show that talks about other people?" I mean is it ok to tare apart Brittney Spears? No.........in fact my heart breaks for her.So then what am I doing here? At church yesterday when Pastor Chris started talking about Fleeing temptation like Joseph did and how he called sin wicked. Pastor Chris loved that word "wicked." He said we should use it more often to describe the act of sin and where it puts our hearts. When we sin we destroy our lives, and those around us. Now you might be screaming "leagalistic" at your computer but its not. Even little stuff creeps in. I don't think I am a bad person if I watch something that doens't please the Lord I just think it removes me from being in fellowship with him when I am watching the cast of some show sleeping around or another show gossiping and hurting others. I don't care about the "good person, bad person" thing either; I care about being in constant fellowship with God so that the short time I am here I can be a world changer. I mean it's hard enough without TV to do the right thing, think the right things and so on. It is so hard to live in the world, be part of it yet be different yet love those around us plus be healthy in our own homes and families why make it any harder? So with that said I have decided to go about the task of being more aware of what I flick on the TV. No more junk. I want to be completely available for God to use me and grow me and him having to work past all the junk we feed ourselves really is counterproductive don't ya' think? Maybe not for you but for me I am choosing to flee.

YUMMYY!!

Ok, so I can see the confusion on your face already. Why a picture of a box of Veggies? Actually it's not just any box of veggies this is a box of veggies from the CSA (community Supported Agriculture) Because I buy all organic and natural products (yes even down to the deoderant) my friend suggested I look into buying a share in one of the farms that delivers to our area. I looked into it and found this huge waiting list and figured I would just have to go on paying the very high prices at Clark's and Trader Joe's. I don't mind if that is the only option but when I found out you could cut the cost of your produce by skipping the middle man (shipping from who knows where), support local farmers and get great tasting food that is chemical free I was so thrilled. So about a week ago I meet this couple whos son is on my daughter's swim team and we started talking about different health issues (another blog another day) and they casually mention they were getting ready to sell half of their share to this farm I was interested in becuase it was to much food.(ha, thank you God!) Well, being the savy business women I am (ok not!) I jumped in front of the waiting list (see, again cutting the middle man) and offered to buy their other half. So today was our first pick up & this is only half because my friend next door and I are sharing. We got so much good fresh food. We got fresh carrots, garlic, Pears, Potatoes, squash, the list goes on and on. We decided to take our fresh Tomatoes, basil and garlic and make homemade pasta sauce for dinner. Ya-hooo!! The girls we're just plucking the carrots out of the box and eating them with a little dirt and all. They were excited as well. :) So maybe a silly post but it's something I have become passionate about in the last 11 months and in a couple weeks I will tell you why! :)

Blessings In The Strangest Places

(I don't usually take pictures of flowers but I couldn't resist this one)

Ok, so I had this really cool thing happen last week and I am going to do my best not to ramble as I share my heart. There is this older couple (probably in their late 70's early 80's) who I have seen walking every morning together for the last three years. They hold hands as they tredge up our steep hill rain or shine in thier matching grey sweat pants and shirts. I always look at them as I am flying by to get Morgan to school and wonder about them. I also cringe to think I complain about walking to the mail box and here they are actually "working out". So anyways, last week I noticed the women was walking by herself; no husband for like three days. I felt this sinking feeling that he may be really sick or even worse. So after like five days of wondering I felt God tug at my heart to go and befriend this women and find out how I could pray for her. I was really nervous as I rounded the corner back up the hill & secretly I was hoping she had finished and God would let me off the hook just for today. My hands were all sweaty and very clearly I heard God say I needed to share with her my heart and offer up prayer. "What, right here?" "God are you crazy, what if she rejects me?" So then at the last minute I saw her coming down the path under the old oak tree and I knew being faithful to God was a must. I pulled over and nervously introduced myself telling her that I was concerned that I had not seen her husband with her. She informed me he was at home recovering from surgery due to colon cancer. I told her that I was going to pray for him and asked how long they had been married; 57 years! I told her how proud of her I was, she seemed so surprised and happy. So then yesterday I was driving to school and guess who I saw waking up the hill after only being down a few days? Yup, the couple who I thought I was going to minister too but instead encouraged me in my marriage. Now I drive by say good morning and wave. I love knew friendships that pop out of the unexpected don't you? God opened yet another door that I cautiously walked through and WHAM-O!! He blessed me. Love it!!