Califoregon Living

It has been raining pretty off and on (mostly on) for the past two weeks.  It has been raining hard for the past 48 hours, complete with high winds.  (Sound familiar, North Benders?)  I just took this picture of the golf course behind our house.  One pond has flooded into another pond.  WHAT IS UP WITH THIS WEATHER?!

Well, the plan was to come down and find some sun, (and, of course, visit us…)  No success as of day three.  Here is Grandma giving the boys a geography lesson…

There were a couple of deer walking the golf course recently.  I was able to get this picture from my window.  This was the first time we saw a wild animal other than a bird on the course!

My friends Tara and Christie have a fun trait to their personality where they enjoy  dressing in costume and going out for the evening and acting silly.  Christie decided to have a party with the theme, “Plastic Surgery Gone Wrong”.  The ladies were to come to my place to get ready and then go out somewhere.  I was happy to open my home for this, but was adamant that I would not go out in costume.

Well, they ended up talking me into it and after laughing over all the different options of dress, how to act, where to go, we ended up going to a local coffee house.

Christie had a unibrow and big backside; Tara had super big lips; her daughter, ‘Betty Boop” lips; I had super long eyelashes (hey, I was a last minute deal…); Carrie had a surprised looking brow lift, and Tina was lopsided…

It was a fun night with a group of wonderful women!

We have a sweet next door neighbor who enjoys lavishing gifts and treats on the boys.  She lives by herself and has a huge bonus room containing the pool table and two pianos.  We paid her a visit and the boys shrieked when they discovered ‘Cheetos’ on the table!

We just enrolled the boys in a local martial arts studio.  They had a nice ceremony presenting the belt.  The other students clapped through the whole process.  The boys were thrilled!

Snapping their belts open…

Villa Toscano in Amador county has a free pasta buffet on Fridays for their club members.  My friend, Crystal, and I took the boys for all you can eat pasta.  It kind of turned into all you can eat breadsticks…

I hope I never tire of seeing these fabulous birds.  Driving home from a morning run, this tom and three hens were in the middle of the road, close to my home.  The tom was so busy courting, he would not leave the road.  The hens noticed me and scooted to the sidewalk; the tom following them…still unaware that anything existed but them.

Spring’s a comin’!

The whole gang has been down these past few weeks.  It all started with our Principal, David, who was completely down with a fever, chills, and feeling lousy for a solid five days.  He is still recovering and it’s been almost two weeks for him!

Then, ‘R’ spiked a fever that lasted four days.  He still has a cough.

‘A’ joined him a day later, only poor guy ended up vomiting for a day. He still has a cough.

I held out the longest, but ended up with a fever that lasted a few days and feeling miserable, with headache and body aches.  I now have a nagging cough.

We kept the boys in the living room close to our bedroom in case they got sick during the night.  The first night ‘R’ was feverish, I stayed up as late as I could, then slept on the floor below, with him on the couch, so I would wake up with any movement.  When ‘R’ was about 18 months old, he had a febrile seizure, and I wanted to keep an eye out on him in case it happened again.

The kids watched enough videos to last the rest of the year.  I tried to squeeze in some educational videos, although those were the ones they usually fell asleep to!

Alex was sharing with us how sick he felt throwing up, but he also said that it wasn’t as bad as leprosy. Way to maintain perspective, buddy!

We managed to get some reading in yesterday.  The boys are logging 6 hours of reading to earn tickets to Six Flags.  They each have 30 minutes left.

Today, we were able to complete the math assignment, then watched a documentary on the Titanic.  I felt well enough to run a few errands and begin to put our house in order.  It will be a while before we are all recovered though.  Takin’ it slow…

I love this song! Such an incredible message that everyone should hear over and over, and maybe even believe…

See video here: You are More by Tenth Avenue North

Lyrics

There’s a girl in the corner
With tear stains on her eyes
From the places she’s wandered
And the shame she can’t hide

She says, “How did I get here?
I’m not who I once was.
And I’m crippled by the fear
That I’ve fallen too far to love”

But don’t you know who you are,
What’s been done for you?
Yeah don’t you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you’ve made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You’ve been remade.

Well she tries to believe it
That she’s been given new life
But she can’t shake the feeling
That it’s not true tonight

You’ve been remade
You’ve been remade.
You’ve been remade.
You’ve been remade.