Dear Blog, I Miss You

I've done all the posting since last May, despite my clear intentions -not- to make this a Mommy blog.  I know S. is busy, but I'm sad and miss his inimitable style.  He could use the creative outlet, and you could all use a decent post.  He spends hours and hours crafting and perfecting when he writes, which is both why his contributions are so wonderful and so rare lately.

So, sorry, all you get is this picture.

Happy Halloween to you all!

Last Adventures

The summer is officially over -- we've broken out some long sleeves and jackets, the school schedule has got us firmly in its grip, and we're watching the first leaves turn.  But we did manage to squeeze out a few more fun days in the last month, including a Labor Day spent at the beach and a trip for me to my brother's wedding.

The beach trip was last-minute, but very rewarding.  We had planned to just go to the pool on Labor Day since it was the last day it was open, but the forecast called for some scattered thunder which means we would have been sitting by the pool waiting for the lifeguards to call it clear or not.  So, we braved the masses on Labor Day.  Luckily, we have a great trump card for beating beach traffic, which is that we are early risers even on a holiday.  We usually hit the road around 7 am and have the place all to ourselves when we get there.

We hadn't really been to the beach all summer, and definitely not since our kids became proficient swimmers during their swim team experience, so we were looking forward to the hours of fun and relaxation.  We didn't even get burned...

 As for my trip -- my brother decided to get married in San Diego, and since S. and I have some wonderful friends posted with the State Department in Tijuana, I got to cross the border and stay with them for a day or two before the wedding itself.  They treated me like royalty, and I got to try out my Spantuguese, which was a blast all round.  I also got to eat as much delicious Mexican food as I could stand.  In one particular case, possibly a little more emphasis on the "as much as I could stand", since I wasn't quite sure what I thought of nopale, but it was still fun to try and eat as much as possible.

I don't actually have any personal pictures of the wedding since I literally crossed the border and went straight to the temple, leaving my camera in a quick heap in my sister's motel room, but here's a shot of my good-lookin' family in Balboa Park afterwards.

It was a fairly low-key wedding and none of us had spouses or children along (except for one little one), but though I missed my significant others, it was a new and unusual experience to just be "us" again.  My brother, sister, and I traveled together in his rental car, and were laughing and telling stories the whole time.  I think that may be the most wonderfully enduring memory of that wedding trip for me, laughing so hard with my grown-up siblings.  Love 'em.

I Guess They Weren't Traumatized

Just Before

So, we are now playing the waiting game.  Other than filling the bathtubs later, and putting some toppings on the pizza crusts I made for dinner, we're just trying to watch movies and enjoy electricity as long as we can.  We're not sure what the best and worst case scenarios are here, there's rather a wide range, but since I'm detail-obsessed and you won't hear much from me for a while, here are some of the things we've done to prepare for Irene:

We've got water, not quite as much as would be ideal, but enough.  I don't know exactly, but I'd say about 14 gallons of drinking water, plus a 50- or 60-gallon rainbarrel outside if we got really desperate.  We've also got a few gallons besides of milk, juices, etc.  I'm not really sure what would happen to a water supply that you wouldn't be able to use it, I'm guessing contamination, in which case we could still flush toilets, but that rain barrel's there for flushing if it gets that dire.

Plenty of food, and IF our underground propane tank is fine (?why wouldn't it be?) we could cook on our gas stove (with matches).  But if not, we have a grill and a camping stove we could take outside.  Also beef jerky, dried and canned fruit, and a big batch of rice pudding I just made, along with all sorts of bread, rolls, and zucchini bread.  If we're careful about opening fridges and freezers, there are hot dogs, some yogurt we could use with oats to make our signature muesli, milk for cereal, as well as lots of fresh fruit and cheese.  I've also got some corn tortillas and salsa which wouldn't be too bad at room temp, as well as some special candy, cookies, chips, etc. to make things more pleasant.

Boredom and fear may be our biggest problems.  I already had the kids brainstorm what they would like to do besides read, and they've thought of their favorite games (especially chess and Apples to Apples), Mad Libs, drawing, playing with stuffed animals or playdough.  I also have a big library book called Fussbusters at Home which is marvelous for ideas, we have a puzzle or two, and I can play the piano or flute easily enough without power.  We stocked up at the library on Friday, so I think we can do this...

Of course, we've put away or tied down anything that might blow around dangerously, and moved everything non-waterproof at least a foot off our basement floor.  We have no battery back-up for our sump pump or any generator, so things could get icky down there.  Most of our friends and neighbors aren't worried about most of the effects of the storm, except for their basements.  We echo that.  Though, to confess, we're also worried about the very very large, mature trees across the street coming down on our roof.  Don't tell the kids, but their room is in potentially real danger.  We'll be having them sleep in with us during the night the storm is going by, both to comfort them and to keep them out of harm's way just in case.

Flashlights and extra batteries, check.  Candles, check.  Cell phones charged and gas tanks full, check.  Extra cash.  Safe Box for ID and documents.  Good neighbors nearby.  Can we be any more ready?  I don't think so.  Here we go!!

Simply Summer

All right, so I lied a little.  S. ended up posting on Facebook instead of on the blog, so you'll have to go there to find out more about Arizona.  Let me just say, though, the other most memorable part of the AZ trip, besides the Jeeping, was all the crawdads we caught and ate at the instigation of my Filipino brother-in-law.  Awesome.

So, here are some photos of our general summer.  The main thing we've done differently this summer is to join the swim team, which was a pretty significant plunge for us (ha ha).  Most of our peers have been doing it for years and have pressured us to join, and I have to admit that it was a pretty good experience. It certainly was a time sink, but the progress the kids made in their swimming abilities was really awesome.  (It made me get all teary when Lucy first managed to swim an entire length of the pool, never having had ANY lessons previously.)  And participation in the few meets we elected to attend was also good and character-building, all that.  They were nervous, but all 3 of the older kids managed to compete in a few races and I'm very VERY proud of them.  I think Sage will not be interested in doing it again, but I plan on putting Ian and Lucy back in again next summer.

Other than that, we have a garden as usual, a tiny frog, a birthday girl in July, many wild berries, and some new glasses for Sage.  Take a peek!