January 26, 2009

The best news today is that Chase's car, which has long been in use as the cushiest cat bed our cats have ever experienced, is finally road ready again! It's actually only been out of commission for a few months, but he's been sharing my car, so I've been VERY eager for him to get his on the road again. On the other hand, though, he's also been paying for my gas, so.... I guess I'll miss that part of it. He and his dad and my dad have been working on replacing parts for many hours over the last few weeks. Now Chase just has some bodywork left to do, and a paint job is definitely in that car's future. But it looks good now and IT'S DRIVEABLE. That's the important part (to me).




Isaiah and Allegra have both purchased swords in the last few weeks. Am I a bad mother? If I am, I've been bad for a long time. Chase owns several airsoft guns and Cliff and I bought him a mace on our last trip to England. What can I say? I guess I don't mind feeding the hunting instincts in my men. Not that any of them use the swords (or the mace) for actual hunting purposes. And, Allegra is not one of my men. Perhaps I'm feeding her fantasies of swashbuckling female heroines? I don't know. In any case, they're cautious kids and they pay for their own weapons, so we're all happy thus far. And the swords and the mace live on the wall. The deal is they are for decorative purposes only. Not so blood-thirsty, right?




Rayne's coming home for President's day weekend (look how tall Chase is! The kid in the foreground is my handsome nephew Scott). She wants to spend some time with Carmen. We may lose Carmen soon, so we're wanting to have as much of her as we can before she leaves. So Rayne is coming home for a few days. I'm so glad. And we have such good friends who help ease her travels. Her roommate is driving her to Provo, our friends the Hutchings are taking her to the airport the next morning at Odark30. Her roommate will pick her up from the airport when she comes back and drive into the night to get back to school. What kind and lovely people we have in our lives.

I guess that's all for today. Cliff is baking cookies and cooking dinner. He's been doing all the cooking for quite awhile now, but I never get over how lucky I am that he does so. Here I am sitting on the couch with the computer on my lap, and he is in the kitchen doing stuff...and we're both happy. How good is that? Occasionally I feel a twinge of guilt, but I do my best to extinguish such twinges as soon as possible. :)

It's winter in beautiful Northern California

It is so beautiful here at this time of year. I love winter because the hills turn green.

Cliff and I just got back from taking Rayne to BYU Idaho. We were gone for 3 days and we drove for 2 of them--12 hours the first day and 19 the third day. Ugh. And we drove through so much snow. I felt a very deep dislike of snow. It's slippery, it's dirty, it gets in the way. Oh, and it's cold. I remember when I first lived in Utah I was amazed and irritated at the fact that the weather can actually force a person to alter travel plans. Where I live in California, when you want to go somewhere, you go. Rain doesn't stop you, and rain is as bad as it ever gets. I had never experienced the forces of nature controlling where I went that day.

Anyway, it was a good trip. We talked with Rayne, we laughed a lot. She ate her last In n Out for the next few months. We got to stay with our very good friends the Hutchings. Cliff and I, on the very long drive home to Sunol from Rexberg, talked about everything. My ipod ran out of battery very quickly and my charger wouldn't work, so all there was left was talking. It was intimate and nice. Just what I was looking forward to.

And of course I forgot to take pictures of the house Rayne is living in. Did I take pictures of her roomates? No. Did I take pictures of the Hutchings? No. Did I take pictures of the inconvenient, slippery and cold snow? No. Did I have my camera with me? Yes. Sigh.

So Rayne is gone for the next few months and we settle down into school and work patterns. Chase is now a permanent hire at Game Stop (as opposed to a holiday hire). Cliff starts his Leadership Development Institute classes all over CA for the next 5 months, he's got to get his students into interships and he'll start working on some stuff for my brother Gerald's school. I'll try to get a handle on Primary and attempt to become a better homemaker, spend hours homeschooling and attempt, yet again, to become slender and svelte without eating less (is this possible?) :D Ally and Zay will get back to the grindstone, adding to their brilliance. It's a new year. Let's get on with it.