Unedited Life/Pictures

 Random life pictures from the past few days/week.....this year's school pictures have all come home.  We were out of room on our school picture wall, so that got redone with shadow boxes-

 Emma hated her pic from last year, so that's why there is a year missing if you are counting from kindergarten to 9th.

 These pictures are all poopy because they are from my phone and I'm not editing them.

I have a good friend who is downsizing.  A while back she gave us her husband's families Franciscan dinnerware.  I honestly had no idea what this stuff was, but let's just say every piece is numbered and it's special stuff. There's way more than this, complete service for 12 and all the serving dishes that go with it, and cups, saucers, platters....there's a lot.  She's been on me about using it and not just keeping it for special occasions, so this was a pic of dinner I sent to her.

 We had some friends over who couldn't get over how clean our house was. In an effort to assure her we are normal, I sent her this picture the next day-

 We had one last outdoor party, and then the next day the forecast was for rain so I hurried and "undid" the back yard for the final time. Looks so empty.

 At the party we had, a friend came over who hadn't been to our house ever.  We have one room that has a lot of clocks on the wall because we like the sounds they make.  Well, she said she had a grandmother (slightly smaller than a grandfather) clock sitting in her garage if we wanted it.  Um...yes, please.  It's amazing. Below, Myles is watching the gears and parts working from the side.

 Above is blurry but he's winding the weights up for the first time.  There are 3 weights and every few days you take a key/handle and wind them back up to the top.  Below you see it also has the phases of the moon, so the moon moves to the right as the days pass.  We are still reading up on how to set that correctly.

 This was the teen game night at our place-

 I got a new horse head.  Random, but makes me happy.

 My Fuzzy Navel pre arrival of teens for game night.

 Brian and Kona napping and trying not to mess up the bed. BTW, everyone who sees our bed says it's bigger than a king should be.  Brian is 6'1, and laying sideways across it has feet of extra room, same length wise.   I don't know how big a king "should be", so to me it's normal. 

 Kona is always somewhere our our bed.

 Homecoming game night.  Another blow out.  Not sure if it's the players, or coaching, but these guys just don't lose, and it's never even close.  Like 80 something to 7, or 50 something to 7.

 This one doesn't need to be enlarged.  Emma's school has an open phone policy, kids can have their phones out all day long.  She texts me a lot during the day.  She text at one point asking me what I was doing...and I was doing her chores, which hadn't been done, or at least done properly, in way too long.  This was the pic I sent her.

 Because when having teens over all you really need is a lot of candy, and pizza and they are happy.

 Thursday nights from 6-8 are family time.  Homework or whatever else is happening stops for those 2 hours and we work on something together, and end it with home made goodness.  This was a berry cobbler.

 Last Thursday we re-read the verses about the ark and how it was to be made (3 stories, windows, covered in tar, etc) and then the boys took half, and the girls took half, and went to work building.  For sure a 2 week project, it should get finished tonight.

  Lastly, Brian came home from getting groceries with this!!! I was so excited!  I hope to get a hotel, just the 2 of us, snuggle in, and watch it from start to finish!  One of my favorites.

Happy Tuesday!

My handsome, blue eyed, 10 yr old baby boy and I wish you a happy Tuesday!

Country Road, Take Me Home

Working on my pano's.  Still a big work in progress, far from good, but a beautiful setting none the less! This was as close as I got to lining up the 3 frames, and you can tell I had the middle shot too low.  I'll get it right, just means I get to be out there practicing : )  I'd love to get it good enough to have some framed prints. Someday.

Buck Up, It's Tuesday!

That was going to be "Buck Up, It's Monday", but really this is a Tuesday that is our Monday, so it works. Anyhow, I mentioned in the bobcat post that I had used up my battery taking pictures of a buck and his friends.  Thought I'd share a few of those on this fine Monday/Tuesday!

 

 

As you can imagine, between these guys, and the bobcat that came afterwards, it was a great morning to have been out on the mountain.  I felt so filled up with happiness after this hike!

We had a 3 day weekend here (except for Brian).  It was the weekend the yard gets winterized.  As much as it needs to, which isn't much living in CA.  The pool went away, we did our second round of raking the leaves up (this will happen about 10 more times), all our wooden tables and chairs move inside to the garage, and any toys that shouldn't get wet move inside.

I finally made the side of the house presentable.  This is usually where the garbage bins are, lawn mower and bbq, and inevitably anything that needs to go to the dump gets thrown over here.  Now it looks great, and since the kids usually hang out in the back part of the yard, it has already turned into a space I can get some quiet time!

 Above, my cleaned out side of the house, and below, the back yard w/pool gone. You can see how many leaves need to fall still. 

After Years of Almost

Finally!! You guys....I've been trying to get a good bobcat shot for so long!  By good, I really just mean not a picture of a blurry dark figure on the trail.  You mostly have had to take my word for it that what I'm seeing is actually a bobcat.  Well, this morning I was trying to figure out why this ground squirrel was sounding the alarm.  If you've heard them chirp, it's super loud, and he was chirping his little heart out.  I saw a dark figure move out from behind a tree, maybe 15 ft from where I stood.

I was in total shock. I had been taking pictures of this squirrel for at least a minute. Then there's this beautiful face looking at me.  He quickly headed down the hill, and I did not hesitate to chase after it, frantically clicking away.  I was so hoping I would get one good picture.

I knew my camera was about to die. I had spent quite a while getting pics of a buck and his friends earlier in this hike and spent my battery. I just kept taking pictures as I followed him, not really knowing what I was getting.

And then.....it just stopped and looked at me.  I got one shot.....and my camera died.  I was totally bummed! I fumbled around and got my phone out and took a ton of pictures of a blurry blob.

 This one above is funny because it went down into the creek bed to get away from me.....but I followed it and tried to find it.  After I climbed out of the bushes back up onto the trail, it was totally chillin, just sitting there in the middle of the trail.  You are looking at him sitting there looking back over it's right shoulder at me.

Shortly after this, we parted ways. I could not see what pictures I got on my camera because it was dead.  

I got home and went straight to the comp to upload.....bingo!

I know I've told you before how they stop and look at you and wag their little tail.  Well, I swear this one smiled, too!  They have the most beautiful face.  They look so wise, like they know way more than you.  

I'm so grateful to this bobcat for finally allowing the crazy lady who was stalking it to get a decent picture!

Past 2 Weeks- View From My Phone

 We are attempting to get back to normal life today.  Everyone's at school or work, which hasn't happened in a bit.  The kids are over pneumonia, Sophie had her wisdom teeth out on Friday, we celebrated 19 years of marriage, Brian is finally started on some meds for his chest gunk/cough thing, and we are still loving Friday night football......that's a summary of the following, poor quality pictures. Happy Monday!!