It's Cold!!!

Yes, it's super cold out here in ever sunny California. We're not used to the temperature dropping to the 40's. I'm sitting here with my scarf wrapped around my neck and if I didn't have to type on this keyboard, I'd have my mittens on!

I was finally able to upload some pictures so I'll share a few. There were approximately 160 pictures just waiting to be uploaded. Let's see what we have here.

This was the view from my backyard during the terrible fires in November. The sky was pretty black for awhile, but because of the Santa Ana Winds, all the smoke blew to the west and we were left clear.

Ryan likes taking self-portraits with my camera. I got caught in this one. :)

Sweet sisters!

Credit for this picture belongs to the mother of Ryan's friend. She takes great pictures.

The kids put on a fashion show for Steve and I. They had a great time pretending to walk down a runway and give us their cutest and silliest poses.

This was the picture we ended up using for our Christmas card this year. Emily's pants aren't the best but her intended dress didn't fit, and her on-the-ball mommy (NOT) didn't come up with a plan B. I didn't realize she didn't have appropriate pants for this sweater. She also wouldn't cooperate and kneel like the rest of the kids did. But, I think the picture turned out well. They tried their best not to squint!

It's time for me to attend to my household duties now. Ryan is home sick today. He has the sniffles and with the cold weather, I didn't want him to be out there and get worse. He has to try to be at school tomorrow for his class Christmas party.

Some of my to-do's today are:

laundry

menu for tonight ( I was bad and didn't do my plan for the week) :(

tackle cleaning out my closet (big job!)

Have a nice day, everyone!

Monday

Ryan was sick this weekend with a stomach bug. The school called me Thursday to say that he had thrown up so off I went to go pick him up. Once home, he was queasy for the rest of the day, got a fever, but didn't throw up any more, even though he was close to doing it a couple of times. The rest of the weekend, he slowly started to feel a little more normal, but still had a little stomach crampiness. I kept him home today as I didn't want him to have a relapse and miss his class Thanksgiving party tomorrow.

Our Thanksgiving will be a little nontraditional this year. Every year we go to my brother's house and this year will be the same. However, this year we well forgo the turkey and eat BBQ burgers! My kids were like, "Huh? No turkey?" I actually don't mind that we won't be having the turkey. My brother and sister-in-law are both having a particularly stressful/busy year at school (they both teach) and this will be one less thing to stress over. We don't need the picture perfect Thanksgiving. Just sharing the meal will be what counts.

I probably will still buy a turkey. We love the leftovers!

After Thanksgiving I will begin to think about Christmas. I need to make out my lists of things to do and buy. But first, I need to dig out my Advent wreath. That will probably be tricky as it's not where I thought it was. I have the candles, but not the wreath.

Weather wise, it's finally getting cold around here. We've been having lots of warm weather and I was beginning to wonder if we would ever see the Fall. I guess we'll have a short Fall and head right into Winter. We are expecting rain tonight or tomorrow. I hope it comes and is not a false report. I love being home when it's raining cats and dogs.

That's it for now!

Tournament Weekend

Kathryn is playing in her first soccer tournament this weekend and we are all excited. It's going to be hot over here but where she's playing is real close to the beach so we should have nice cool breezes.

Kathryn will be playing two games today and in between I need to take Ryan for a haircut. I've delayed it so many times already that he really couldn't go much longer without him starting to look too unkempt.

This past week has been mostly spent doing some spring cleaning of our patio. The weather has been very warm so I've hosed down the patio, cleaned windows, dusted cobwebs, beat out some old mats and just did some sprucing up. While out there, I'm sure finding a lot of those black beetles I mentioned before. I think I'm kind of getting used to them now. I'm not so freaked out.

Well, I'm off to the tournament. I hope I can take some decent pictures to post later.
I'll leave with this link for a free Fruitista Freeze from Taco Bell if you like that type of food. It looks delicious, especially on a nice warm day!

More Wind!

It was windy all through the night, but not enough to scare me and keep me up. I have surveyed the damage and here is what needs to be done:

• Pick up aluminum cans that are strewn around in the backyard. Don't ask what they are doing there. The story goes way back.


• Tie up some rose trees back to their stakes. They have broken the ties that were holding them on and now they are swaying so bad I'm afraid they might snap.


• Monitor the trash can sitting at the curb. Today is trash day and our can is loaded. If the top flips off with the wind, some of the trash bags could fall out. That would not be nice.

I also need to do plenty of work inside the house, too.

• I was working on laundry when the power went out last night. So I need to finish that and put them away. Clothes are in all places.


• Clean the kitchen. It's a mess. Dirty floor and dirty dishes.


• Clean up the clutter everywhere.


• Start with getting the disaster preparedness kit going.

So I'll be busy today!

Winds!

The San*ta Ana winds have arrived. Every year around this time, we get these strong dry winds along with high temperatures. They are really strong, blowing shingles off the roof, tree branches strewn along the street, and this year, a power outage. I was right in the middle of washing clothes when it happened. I had to take out the wet, sopping clothes, throw them in a garbage bag and head out to my mother's house to finish the wash. If it wasn't that I had the kids uniforms in this load, I would have just left them in the washing machine until the power came on. And I had no idea when that would be. Thankfully, when I came back home, the power had been restored! It's also a good thing Steve and I both had pulled our cars out of the garage before losing power. It's very difficult to get that electric garage door to open manually!

These winds have also brought lots of fires in the hills and canyons. Coming home on the freeway tonight, I could see the fire going on in the hills about 10 miles from here.

With all these fires going on, the winds, and the power outages that threaten us, it has reminded me to put together an emergency preparedness kit. I'm going to put that at the top of my to-do list!