Our Autumn

Can you see the marquee in these little photos? I stood on the corner of the street for 5 minutes or so waiting for the perfect moment: Cliff's name on the board, no cars or trucks in the way, the perfect zoom setting to get the words clearly, etc. I'm sure anyone who noticed some lady taking photos on the street corner thought I was one brick shy of a full load. Or a stalker. Or something. Anyway, Cliff won Teacher of the Year for Fremont ROP. He and a teacher from every other district in Alameda County were honored at the county offices. They promised them all big bonus checks and instructed them to go to the "green room" after the ceremonies to receive their bonuses. Eagerly they all trooped to the "green room" only to be told that "the check was in the mail". Apparently the last (and most generous) donor's check had not yet arrived at the county offices, so the bonus checks could not be written quite yet. But they would certainly have them in the next week or so. Now, a month later, there is no check and the friendly assurances are not so forthcoming as they were in the first week or two.... Teacher of the Year is certainly a nice thing. It's an honor and an accolade. However, it's tempting to decide that it's just one more version of lip service that we pay to teachers.... hm. All cynicism aside, though, I'm very proud of Cliff. He excels at everything he does. He's a great teacher, with huge, popular classes and with students who remember and use what he teaches. So, Congratulations! to my man.


Gorgeous, gorgeous colorado. The two youngest and their two cousins and I visited my grandmother in her little beautiful Western Colorado town. It was apple season and I bought the most delicious apples! I'd forgotten what orchard-fresh apples actually tasted like. I'd gotten used to the grocery store version. This photo was taken on the Mesa. The best fall color is past already (it was the beginning of October) but it's still beautiful up there--the aspens are yellow and the evergreens are dark and the air is crisp.


On the Mesa is a creek and a reservoir named after my Grandfather's family. They were some of the earliest settlers in this little town and my forbears were part of the group of men who dug out the numerous reservoirs and waterways that feed their lovely little valley. Of course my kids just liked throwing rocks into the water, especially when they found a patch of thick ice. Could they break it with the rocks? Yes, they could! When my grandma is gone, we probably won't visit this part of the country. It's a long drive and she is the motivating factor for us to make it. I hope my kids have visited often enough now for them to retain a sense of the history for us in this little town. I love it here.


What the kids love about visiting the ranch: mud fights are a desirable activity, even if you have to scrub the dried mud off of the house the next day (I did a lot of washing of clothing, too). Budding architects can build dams in the creek (as long as Grandma K doesn't catch them). You can leave your shirt off all day (if you're a boy). You can build paper boats and race them down the creek. You can build fires every day--outside in the fire pit and inside in the stove. You can chop up wood--with a real axe!--for said fires. You can walk downtown unaccompanied and spend all your money at the local variety store (Duckwalls)--they have everything! Grandma makes enough food for you to eat until you are stuffed full. And then you can have the leftovers 10 minutes later when you're hungry again. At the right time of year, there's Applefest--a huge fair downtown with shopping, face-painting, food, games--all within walking distance of the ranch. If it's cold enough on the Mesa (as it is any time after summer is over), there'll be snow--at least enough to build a snowman and throw a few snowballs. When I was younger we'd sneak into the barn and jump on the piles of my Grandpa's hay bales. Now, though, Grandpa's gone and there's a friend who leases the pastures and the barn and I don't let my kids jump on his hay. :) Too bad. That was really fun. Until Grandpa caught us. Anyway, we had a great time, with a lot of driving (which I love) and a lot of visiting with people we love.
In other news...

Beautiful Rayne turned 20. She attempted evasions from all birthday photos taken this evening, but this is the one that I finally snatched, with help from her dad. She's such a nice girl. She's busy working, working... She is VERY excited to go to UK on BYUI's study abroad program. Now her focus is on saving money and planning everything. Gotta get as much as possible ready now since she may or may not be back here before she goes to UK in the spring. She returns to school after the holidays, at the beginning of January. I think she's about ready to go back. She couldn't WAIT to get home in July, but now she's getting tired of working full time and is looking forward to getting back into school and is REALLY looking forward to her trip, of course.


Ally is the most creative person I know. I've said this before, but I am still continually amazed at what she makes with ease--she conceives the project, she plans the project, she fabricates the project. She made this hat from her own design. And she totally made her Mat Hatter bandolier, hat and jacket (with tails at the back of it that you can't see from this angle) from her own design. She later rejected the Mad Hatter costume because she didn't like how it looked on her. All that work! She is a pretty amazing girl. And she IS getting better and better at remembering to clean up after herself :).... I keep reminding myself that genius can't be expected to do everything!

Isaiah's scout group used our backyard for a camp-out. They slept on the "peninsula" and cooked all their food over the fire and then the next morning they practiced shooting with 22s into the hillside. They had lots of fun. Only one desperate parent asked to use the bathroom. Isaiah smelled SO bad the next morning. What is it about camping? Anyway, they had a great time and I didn't have a to lift a finger. But I DID have to remember to close my curtains before I wandered into my bedroom and got ready for bed. No problem.

That big and windy storm that blew in in October was very exciting up here. We tied everything down. During the last storm, the trampoline got blown to pieces and when we collected them all from all over the north side of the property, we found that one of the big pieces was bent backwards. Our kind neighbor welded it back into shape for us. So this time, we tied it down. My dad, however, went out in the middle of the storm to check on all the little trees. They are all tied and supported, but the storm had indeed blown a few of them down and he had to wrestle with them in all the wet. Meanwhile my mom and I had a nice time giggling at his yellow slickers and taking photos of him from the comfort of the house. Doesn't he look cute?

Finally, here are my youngest two and my brother's 4 boys all dressed up for Halloween. We've got a detective, a hobbit, 2 injured boys, Dan (from Bakugon--duh, I'm surprised you didn't recognize him right away), and Darth Vader. Cliff and I took the kids up to Brentwood to trick or treat with their uncle and cousins while he and I (and our friends the Hutchings) went to dinner at Diggers. Yum! It was fun.
Postscript:

Yeah, I didn't mention Chase at all this post. But here he is, reclining on the couch. I couldn't complete a post with one kid missing. He just got transferred to the Livermore store and he got a promotion. He's still working on perfecting the body work for... the car... and he's the biggest tightwad in the family. Go Chase! As far as I can tell he's pretty much an EOE (if you don't know what that is, you'll have to ask me in person), but he's so dang charming that most of the time I just smile and nod. :)

Oh, and one further postscript:

Ah, my typical morning view--the container in the mist! I took this picture because it shows how my kitty hangs out with whomever is working in the back yard. My dad calls her the kit-dog because she follows us around outside and sits at her ease in the vicinity of whomever is working out there. This morning the kids were doing some chore out there and the cat was, of course, present and supervising all outside activities. BUT... today the container is to be moved!!!! Yay! The battle has been won and the container is now to be moved to the side of the house, out of my view. Also today Dad and Cliff and Ernie (we love our neighbors!) will place the 2 new cisterns. Soon we'll have enough rainwater to nourish all our landscaping (including a lawn for me!) and we'll have a workshop/storage shed for the tractor at the side of the house. And my view will be untrammelled. Well, except for the compost, the rock pile, the pea-gravel pile, the wood pile... etc. But the lovely container will be removed from the view. I am very happy. Pictures will be posted.... And maybe I won't leave 2 months to go by before I do it, either!

On Living in the Country

You can shoot as many rocks with the slingshot as you want and you can shoot them as far as you want (just not toward the house, of course).

You may find frogs in the cat water. NOTE: the food container is in a frisbee filled with water to keep the ants out--they can't cross the "moat" to the food. The fancy cat food containers that I bought when we first moved here died a long time ago. Give me an empty handi-wipe container and a frisbee any day! I thought at first that this frog had been dragged in by the cats and was dinner-in-waiting, but on closer examination I noticed he still had all his limbs and was unharmed. The cats were both in there looking at him with me, but neither of them seemed interested in making a meal of him. So I determined he needed rescuing and called Cliff in to do the actual handling part of that (ugh. slimy froggie). But apparently the frog found the flash from my camera irritating and he jumped out of the water and moved on. I guess he was just taking a pool break from his travels.

There are never enough landscaping rocks to cover 6 acres of land that is reluctant to support pretty plants and that is host to deer and squirrels and gophers. See our terraces and the little dry streambed? In the winter, we hope the water will funnel down the streambed and into the drain below it. We followed the natural path that the water has taken for the last several winters. Soon we'll plant some stuff in each terrace (all that dirt is really topsoil and manure). Yummy! Later we'll add one more terrace big enough to build a smallish deck on. This is right outside (and to the left) of my bedroom window/door.

Insects abound. This praying mantis was in the garage. Obviously, he got lost. Ugh

This huge spider web is not unusual in my home. When I saw this one, this is how the conversation went:
Mom: "Honey, when is the last time you vacuumed the windowsill?"
Child: "Just a few days ago."
Mom: "Hm. Come here a a minute."
Child: "Just let me finish--"
Mom: "Come here IMMEDIATELY!"
There follows a full hour of screeching, sweaty Mom moving furniture and directing all children to vacuum under every table, every couch, every chair, every bed, in every corner--windows, ceiling, floors, etc, all the while knowing that all the spiders will return within 24 hours to rebuild their mansions (like this one), their apartment complexes (I swear there were 4 spiders all living together in the corner by the laundry closet) and pitching their tents (a web in my sandal that I took off by the bookshelf LAST NIGHT!?!).

You can lay on the trampoline at midnight and watch meteor showers. They're clear and bright because there is so much less ambient light out here. I've got no photo of this one, but we had a peaceful hour or so, Cliff, Allegra, Isaiah and I all cuddled up under blankets watching for shooting stars. Isaiah kept count: he said he saw 16 shooting stars.

Snakes are cool. One afternoon we found one of these little snakes sitting at the edge of the driveway with a big lump in his throat--he had just eaten and was slow and satisfied. He didn't choose to be observed by us for long, though, he waddled (can snakes waddle? Maybe he crawddled) back into the blackberry bushes to digest his dinner. This guy, however, we found heading towards the garage. Obviously his snake radar was messed up. Cliff called us out to look and then redirected him to the hillside.

There are A LOT of mice and other rodents. Ally and Zay found this little one and were trying to decide: keep him as a pet (I voted against that one) or feed him to the cats (I voted against that one too). In the end, their tender hearts won and they released him into the weeds.


The nights are cool and breezy and quiet. Sometimes we can hear coyotes. Often we see deer and wild turkey. We can see forever. We worry about wildfires. We would be surrounded by weeds and dirt (well, more than we already are) with no hope of gardens or landscaping without the tractor. It is so peaceful. I love it out here. Come and visit!

June 2009

It is so beautiful here. I am so blessed to be able to live where we can see forever.


The month of June was very busy. We had 2 birthdays, a graduation, an Eagle project to write up, and all the other things that go with being part of a large family.



Rayne has been busy finishing her Sophomore year at BYUIdaho. She's on the swim team there and she loves it. She's lucky to have friends and roommates who like to play on the weekends, so she's been spending a lot of time at various lakes and canals... swimming, of course.


So this month has really been all about Chase. This little display is from his graduation party. We and the parents of 5 of his friends shared a big graduation party for our children. Cliff made all the food, our friends the Larsens hosted it in their fabulous yard, other parents decorated the tables, made memory books for the graduates, planned games for everyone. It was a lot of fun.
And the food was VERY good, of course! Cliff has such a gift for this! He made homemade garlic breadsticks, buffalo wings, tons of tri-tip sandwiches with veggie relishes and 3 different kinds of sauce.... others brought salads and dip. There were lots of people there--including quite a few that no one seemed to know (who invited them we wondered!). The little kids swam in the pool and the big kids played games and bonded. Congratulations Chase!

He is VERY glad to be done with his high school work. He graduated with great grades and he's decided to take a year off from school. He plans to: continue working and saving for his mission, take an autobody class and fix up his car and Rayne's car, and take a few other classes at the local junior college. All good things. Meanwhile, he's still working on getting his car actually running! My dad calls it the "one way car" because it's broken down several times on the way home from somewhere--it gets Chase there, but fails to get him home!

He house-sits for a great neighbor who lives down the road. Ernie (our neighbor) knows the way to a teenager's heart: he not only pays Chase for watering and watching the place, but he brings over his ATV so Chase doesn't have to walk or drive his car to the house. Nice, eh?


He also did his regular "mowing" of the neighbor's "yard"--a few hours of work for $400--wish that happened more than once a year!


Finally, Chase completed his Eagle project. After planning for a month or so, he spent 3 weeks collecting donations (goods and money) for the Family House in San Francisco. He wanted to do this because his cousin Carmen stayed there with her mom Dorothy--for free--when Carmen was having treatment there for her cancer.

The Family House made that time there away from the family bearable for Carmen and Dorothy and Chase wanted to do something for them. So many people donated. So many people were extremely generous. He ended up bringing them a truckload of food and other stuff and many gift cards for groceries and gas (which they give to their families who need them). Chase and Isaiah and Cliff delivered the stuff at the beginning of June to the Family House. So Chase had a very busy June. He is now an official Eagle Scout.


Allegra turned 14 at the end of June. We had our usual family birthday party. She and her grandmother went birthday shopping (hence the manicure and the new shirt). She got just what she wanted for her birthday, including plenty of books.

She's eagerly anticipating girls camp, which will happen in July. Meanwhile she's taking advantage of long summer days where nothing is required of her except a few nominal chores and a little bit of math. Here you see her with Rayne, who played hairdresser for her daily while she visited us in May (for Spring break). Does not Allegra have AMAZING hair? She doesn't appreciate it now..... but she will!





Sweet Isaiah (you see him above with Chase too) turned 11 in May and has now entered the world of boy scouting, which he loves. He is a very good worker and he has been helping a lot... around the house, with the Eagle project, out in the yard. He assures me that he's not waiting until a few months before his 18th birthday before HE does his Eagle project! Isaiah is spending his summer working on various projects and playing more video games than usual and watching more movies than usual and just generally enjoying himself. Except! for those daily math lessons (Mom is so mean). Isaiah and Allegra are the proud owners of two guinea pigs--Zeus and Hades--and Isaiah is the most tender, most conscientious pet owner ever.

Cliff and I are well. He's got a million projects lined up to do this summer. This is the first summer he's had completely off from work in many years. And he's not a man of leisure--he's happiest when he's busy. He's got a couple of conferences to attend. He's got cars to work on, he wants to sort and reorganize the "dungeon" (i.e. the game room and the food storage room), and he's got tons of outside projects--a deck perhaps? Definitely he's going to prepare some of the back area for possible grass in our future (I dream of grass in the backyard....). You'll hopefully see pictures this summer of his many accomplishments. Oh! Something very good: Cliff was "Teacher of the Year" in our school district this year--quite an honor. Surprisingly, this honor requires his writing 19 pages of papers for further submissions to the state and the national "Teacher of the Year" programs. He is an exceptional teacher, one of the many things I didn't really know about him 20+ years ago when we married. He is always surprising me with new talents. He does everything so well.

My big summer goal is to catch up with our scrapbooks! Is this an impossible task? Maybe. But I plan to spend every available moment trying. I also want to get some serious reading done and I want to work on memorizing a song on the piano. I have never been good at memorizing piano music but I figure one song a year may not be too hard? I don't know. We'll see. I'm also sure I'll get drawn into all the various projects that everyone has planned around here. And, unfortunately, I am sure I will spend an inordinate amount of time doing laundry and cleaning things. Sigh. I am very happy, though. We have a very good life.

March

So... still catching up on family news (perhaps you've noticed that I'm doing February and March's blogging in April....yeah. Sorry. I'll be better, I promise.)


Chase was talked into going to the LDS prom on Oakland. He didn't really want to go and didn't really enjoy the dance he said... but he sure looks handsome!


We have been to the beach more this winter/spring than we went all summer last year, I think! I told Dorothy that these last 3 times we've gone it's felt almost like a spiritual experience for me! So peaceful and calm and temperate. She says it's because Carmen is there with us! I hope she's right. This time Dorothy and the boys and Jessica and her 5 went with us to Sea Cliff beach in Aptos and it was a perfect day. I finally got around to taking a bunch of photos at sunset when the light was warm and mellow.


Okay. I don't get why Isaiah likes draping himself with seaweed. For me seaweed is something that looks cool at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and it tastes good on sushi, but when it touches my foot at the beach I shudder (and sometimes shriek) and kick it away. It's slimy and sometimes smelly and just yucky! But Isaiah, almost every time, gathers as much as he can find and drapes it around himself and plays the SWAMP THING. I think he does it because he knows it grosses me out. EEEW.


Here's my adorable boy on the beach at sunset, patiently waiting for me to be done drinking it all in, taking photos, shaking sand out of blankets and towels, and ready to receive his armful to schlep back to the car. It's been a pleasantly warm afternoon, but as soon as the sun goes down it's all of a sudden freezing and we all rush through our packing up and shuffling back to the cars. No matter how chilly it's gotten, though, we're still going to Marianne's for ice cream on the way home!

Here's our final photo for March:

You have to know that my Ally puts a premium on comfort and convenience. She has long, very curly hair that she washes because I make her and she conditions in self-defense (have you ever tried to comb tangles out of very curly hair?). She prefers jeans and t-shirts to any dressier clothes and she brushes her teeth only when absolutely necessary. But! She is on that threshhold between childhood and womanhood, so she has her woman moments too, and more of them all the time. She cherishes her tomboy comforts, though, and wishes to postpone fussing and primping in general. Today her Aunt Jessica (Ben's wife) has girlied her up. Her hair is moussed and diffused. Her face is delicately made-up. Her person is carefully clothed. And for this picture, her glasses are off. She looks quite gorgeous. And I do love this gorgeous creature. But I love my sweet, brilliant, generous tomboy too. I'll take her in whichever guise she chooses to present herself. She's our Allegra no matter what.

Her sister is home this week (April 18 is the day I'm writing this). She has tortured Allegra almost every day. Torture=doing her hair. So I'll be posting pictures of all that glamour too. Soon. (April's not over yet!)

Late February 2009

Someday this sycamore will be a big, beautiful shade tree, right at the corner of the garage patio so we can barbecue out of the sun. Tonight it is in the corridor of light from the sun that is just sinking into the hills in the west. My camera isn't really good enough to catch the subtleties of sunset, but you can still get a sense of what a beautiful evening it was this spring day.

I haven't updated this blog for too long. These last few months have been very full.



Our Carmen died on February 18, around 10 p.m. I had visited her that day and she was very weak and not always "with" us. She couldn't see or hear well and she let me hold her hand. She was usually in too much pain to want to be touched, but this day was different, for which I am grateful. So, we have lost her and we will never forget her and never stop missing her and never stop being grateful that we were trusted with her and that we knew her. We know she is ours forever.



Here are Reed and Dorothy the day after Carmen's memorial service. All of our family came into town to be together, of course, and on this Sunday we met at my brother Ben's house for a big Family Home Evening. Reed and Dorth are tired, but doing very well. They are a source of peace for all of us, and for everyone they talk to.


The big event this Sunday was the blessing of the newest baby in the family, Abigail Carmen. She was born on the day we were told that Carmen would not make it. Ben and Jessica decided to name her after her cousin. Here's my sweet Chase with his baby cousin. He is a kid magnet! They all love him and he is magic with them.



Here are all the Galbraith cousins except for my Rayne. She flew into town for Carmen's viewing and burial on Friday, but had to return to school on Saturday and so missed the memorial (which was wonderful) and the family gathering on Sunday. We missed her a lot and she missed us too, but she needed to be at school. Her grades, by the way, are fantastic. Go Rayne!

So, a sad February but a beautiful one too. Our family has never experienced such depth of sorrow before. I'm so very grateful for such a strong and loving family to share burdens and to share happiness with. I'm especially grateful for the sealing bonds which promise an eternity of togetherness.

February 6, 2009

Beautiful rain. I love it. And finally we are getting some more. When it rains, though, all I want to do is sit around under a blanket reading and drinking hot chocolate. Or is it just that I really want to do that all the time? It truly is an imposition on my leisure time to do laundry, supervise school work, clean bathrooms, parent, run errands, attend meetings, clean house at all, etc. Truly, look at this view. With this outside my windows, how can I help but be a lotus eater? Sigh. My life is hard. But I manage.





So, this has been a big family week. My sister came to stay so she and her kids could spend time with Carmen. Her youngest spent a great deal of her time at Dorothy's carrying around their little foster dog, Spice. Notice the tucked in tail. Poor Spice. Adorable Payton. Anyway, we had a lot of fun hanging out together. I can't believe how many people come to visit Carmen. Every day I was there this week there were visitors and callers. And no one comes without a gift of some sort. People are so good! It warms my heart and makes me see the beauty amid the tragedy that is Carmen's illness.


So, here is maybe the last picture of Chase's car that I'll post on this site. Despite a light flirtation with a 3000GT that he met online, Chase seems to be back in love with his slightly damaged car. I can't currently write about Chase without writing about this car. It still needs, I am told, a new seal for the transmission fluid, some possible frame work, and then the previously mentioned body work and paint job. Red skirts are sought. Yes, this is an education for all of us and you, dear reader, are not to be left out. Aside from the car thing, Chase is finding that, after a lifetime of having no job, having a part time minimum wage job is not quite as lucrative as one might hope. Is there a change in his future? We'll all have to wait and see.


As for Rayne, you should know that I am not allowed to say much about her. These white thigh-high boots (I beleive the term is "domanitrix boots, or something like that. ahem.), however, are hers and are enjoying cavorting about without her (Doesn't my friend Dianna look cute?). While the cat's away.....
Rayne is busy writing poetry and prose and reading like crazy and delighting my heart by calling now and then to ask advice or to share a thought. She is a much better poet than I am. Yes, despite my years of honing this skill with rhyming treasure hunt clues and birthday card original poems, I have not reached any degree of competence. At all. It's too bad. Especially since I have not discontinued my practice of writing bad poetry for special occasions. Anyway, Rayne comes home next weekend and I am looking forward to it. She's bringing me a haiku book that I REALLY want. And of course I'm looking forward to spending time time with her too. Of course.

My Allegra has discovered she's a mean and aggressive hockey player. Who knew? She's all sunshine and light usually. This week she and her brother Isaiah have been very good students, voluntarily completing their schoolwork with very little prompting from me. I love this. Unfortunately, it does encourage a little slothfulness on my part. After all, if I'm not needed in the schoolroom, why should I even stir out of bed in the mornings? Ally is the best babysitter ever. Have I mentioned this before? She truly is.



Zay spent 4 days of the last week at his cousin's house and that was not enough for him. He was sorely disappointed when I refused to let him spend the weekend there. He and James are such good friends and I am so grateful for that. Isaiah is the nicest 10-year-old ever, I think. He is a champion at checking every item off his school list every day. He cleans when I ask him to. He is not averse to maternal kisses. I really like my kids.

And yeah. If you saw my facebook at all last week you'll know that we went to the beach. It was so nice. I think I was all wound up because when I got there I felt everything unwind. There were only a few others there. It was totally calm--no wind. The seals (or are they sea lions) were close into shore, their sleek heads popping up now and then to check things out. A school of dolphins followed a lone man standing up in some sort of outrigger way out past the surf. The kids dug holes in search of water, they beachcombed in search of beach glass and cool rocks and shells. They body surfed. They buried their feet in the sand. I go to the beach quite often. I don't know what set this day apart. Perhaps this day was particularly good for me because I needed the recharge that a natural setting can often provide. Or something. All I know is that it was an especially precious day.

And the next week the kids made soap and put their soft pieces of beach glass in the colored glycerine beach shapes they chose for their soap. I know. You're surprised that I actually got out project stuff for them. A craft even. I don't know what came over me. I was having a mom moment. It was fun. Good clean fun even (I couldn't resist that one.)

So. A good week. One of my favorite Cheri Call songs talks about a broken heart having more space inside it. This is how I'm beginning to feel about Carmen. It breaks my heart wide open to contemplate her death. But those open spaces seem to invite me to feel the good things more keenly. The truly beautiful things I encounter from day to day just seem to sink into my heart. It's a blessing amid the stress and worry and I am grateful for it.