Computer Down!

It was good while it lasted...but it went black again yesterday. After Brian got done "working on it".....it also lost all power. 

I hate using Brian's computer.....so what does this mean. Well, keep me bookmarked....but until this gets fixed, or I get a new laptop, I honestly won't be posting much.  I wouldn't expect more than once a week.

We leave for Disneyland in a few days!! Super excited for that. I'll probably post some pictures next week....maybe.

In One Week.....

We will be a houseful of giddy peeps!! We are so excited for our first Disneyland trip in 4+ years....I kinda can't wait!!!

In the meantime, life continues on. Nothing super exciting going on here, which is a good thing. Lots of little things, though.  One sort of exciting thing is that I get to go to Alcatraz with the middle school's 6th grade class.  Growing up in WA, this would have been the field trip of a life time!! We've been here over 16 years now, and I've still never been, so I'm excited! I'm also getting to work a lot in Myles class on art and science days (weekly), and sometimes in the library checking books out to the kids, and also spend an hour or two a week in the office making copies for his teacher. This is our 3rd year at what I still call the "new" school, and it's finally starting to feel like home.

Brian and Emma took the bikes out for a ride on the mountain. This was a first, and they both had a blast. Trail conditions are super dry and loose, so ups and downs they both said were kind of scary....but I suspect they were equally fun because of the scariness. They stuck to the grasslands, in the picture below. There's plenty of steep hills in those rolling grasslands.

Looks like a town that needs rain.

We had a thunder and lightning storm come through over the weekend with a tiny bit of sprinkles. I bet this old guy was struck by lightning at some point in his life.

When Back Creek is actually flowing...this is one of my favorite sections because it actually flows higher than the trail....and those stairs are always pretty.

I've gotten some trail time in. More trees are down. We had a bought of wind Saturday that brought some trees down around town, and I'd guess lots on the mountain, although there was just one down out of Mitchel Canyon across the trail.

 Turkey's are the only animal life I've seen this week.

What a 90 degree, humid Fall day looks like.

This is the inside of the downed tree. It's just dried out, brittle, crumbly wood.

The girls are adjusting to having set chores that rotate every week. : ) This caused growing pains at first, but they are starting to except their new reality. They are 11 and 13....it was time.

We found a really nice, solid wood, heavy, heavy, heavy desk with a hutch top for free in a driveway Saturday morning. One of the benefits of the volunteer work our family does on the weekends is that it takes us into a variety of neighborhoods in our town. We happened to be in a really nice part of town when we made this find.  The guy came home as Brian and I were attempting to move it, and jumped right in and helped. It took all 3 of us to lift it....but then he says he better follow us home and help unload it.  Normally, this would have freaked me out....but taking in where we were, the fact he was an older, clean cut guy, and the nature of why we were in the area to begin with.....we were ok with it.

What the hutch looked like before we got it all pretty in Emma's room.

Of course, that meant the rest of Saturday was spent cleaning Emma's room, rearranging things, moving her old desk into Myles room, getting the new one set up and the decor just right....I love my kids rooms. They are not fancy at all, but they all 3 have their own spaces that reflect their own personalities.

Emma's room, before it got cleaned. She'd love that I posted this, I'm sure.

After it was cleaned and rearranged. She left half way through the process to go play football with some friends....So I really got in there and tossed multiple bags of stuff.

This is the hutch!! It's really pretty!

Emma's old desk re-homed into Myles room. He had wanted a space to work on his legos, and a shelf to display them, so this worked out great for him.

 So if you've been around the blog for a few years.....you may notice I have a knack for somehow falling into really nice pieces of furniture for free in peoples driveways.  So far - a sofa, love seat, two dressers, a roll-top desk, and now this desk/hutch.  All nice, solid furniture that would have been way out of our price range. I don't know how...but I'll take it. Plus, man its nice to have the truck and be able to load it easily.

Not a great picture, but this is the free sofa and love seat we scored...

And, what may be my all time favorite free find.....this old roll top desk (missing the roll top part) in Sophie's room.

Well, this was about as random of a post as I could have thrown together...but that's kind of how my mind works!

Spiders and Broken Trees

That's been the excitement lately on the trail. Lots of trees snapping, and lots of tarantulas.  Oh, and yesterday we had rain almost all day. Super light rain....but rain. Unfortunately, I had 2 kids home for dr appointments and wasn't able to get out and enjoy muddy trails....but the air smelt great!! 
Here's a few from the trails this past week -

I always feel like I'm getting a glimpse into some other world when I catch this view...it's always kinda half lit back there, misty even though there's no moisture to be found...like another world.

This is a close up of that little window to another world.

I talked about all the trees drooping and then snapping in a previous post, here's a section out of Mitchel Canyon where the trees are just done. They really, really need a drink. If you look up to the left of the trail, you can see one snapped about half way up and is now aimed down at the trail.

More drought carnage.

This is a prime example of what's happening...they just start to bend over and lay down, and then snap when they can't bend anymore.  It'll be interesting to see how long this one lasts.

We took the kids out for a walk to see they could see any Tarantula's.  There were a few out and about.

 

Another tree down on Globe Lilly trail.

2 Things here, he's asking her something, not sure what...and notice that pretty well used game trail to the right of my head.

This is what a Tarantula looks like on the trail as you come up on them...can you see it? I really have to be looking where I'm going this time of year.  He's there, on the trail, right in the middle....

I've schooled you guys on prints enough over the years that I'm sure you know what print this is....

That's a hog print next to my size 11 Hoka's.

I dont' know what these are, but they were so clean and shiny for being out in nature...I'm guessing Holly berries??

These are from Buckeye Trail off Burma Trail, different side of the mountain from all the above pictures.

I cant believe that when we moved down here16 years ago, I thought these were the ugliest trees I'd ever seen. I can't tell you how many times their beauty literally stops me in my tracks.

I thought these were the cutest little prints! 

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Yee Haw!!

I'm back up and running! So happy to have my computer back. The fan was shot, and something about a foot long thing of lint, fried heat sheilds, needing heat gel????  I don't know...but our friend worked wonders, and I got it back last night! Working on a post now.