House painting

Before and after, all in one shot!

Before

After (the sunshine helps too)

For a break, Erin got Grandma to help her wax the Jeep.

Dad, adding more and more caulking.

Abby "helping" her mom, Rachel

Great helpers, Erin, Ryan and Lindsay

Two windows done, many more to go!

It has been an exhausting week. It all started a couple of months ago with my Dad and Mom said they would like to help us paint the house. Tim took the week of Mar. 31-Apr. 4 off. Then Dad had some health problems in mid-March and we decided not to do the house painting. Fine with us, but Tim still had the week off, and we were going to do some other projects around the house. But then on Sunday of this week, Dad called and said they had no plans for the week and he was feeling much better, they could be here by Wednesday to start painting. We shifted gears quickly and off we went, prepping, making decisions about colors and plans for how we wanted to go about this project. Tim was the crew chief and worked very hard. But we had lots of helpers. Dad was the caulking king, going through at least 12 tubes of caulking. Mom wore out rollers and brushes. Erin, Lindsay and Ryan helped sporadically when schedules allowed, and Rachel, Nathan, and Abby from the back house pitched in too. It was a great team effort. So after 4 solid days of painting, we are halfway done with the house, not including the garage and back house. So there is plenty left to do. I'll have to add Advil to the shopping list. We ran out this weekend.

The hills are alive…

New flowers are appearing weekly in the Whittier hills. Now the poppies and mustard are out in abundance. We want to enjoy this as much as possible right now, because in just a few weeks the "show" will be over and we'll have to look at brown ugly hills the rest of the summer.

There is a hummingbird in the middle of this bush. Can you find it?

Spring in Whittier

Well, technically, the calendar says February, but tell that to the wildflowers in the Whittier hills. With all the rain we got in January and early February, the flowers have begun to make their appearance. Tim and I walked up through a trail off of Turnbull Canyon this morning. We were rewarded with this view before we turned around and headed back. It was a beautiful morning with a bright blue sky, thousands of birds singing, and little critters scampering about. Supposedly there was a sighting of a mountain lion or bobcat earlier in the week, but it didn't get us. We enjoyed the fresh morning air, conversation, and seeing one of our neighbors riding his mountain bike.

Erin's dream car

We are now proud owners of a 2005 Jeep Liberty. Yes, Erin got her dream car. We bought it this weekend while she was at winter camp. On Sunday, Tim went to pick her up early from camp to take her to a volleyball tournament. The original plan was to pick her up from camp in the Jeep, but it would have put a couple hundred miles on it and we needed to keep the mileage below 36,000 to try and get in under the original manufacturers warranty when buying our extended warranty. (I know, it's a long story.) Anyway, Tim picked Erin up from camp in his van and went directly to the volleyball tournament. Lindsay and I came to the tournament later with the Jeep. After Erin's first match, we planned to have Lindsay tell Erin there were some chairs in the car that we needed to get, and she would ask Erin to go with her to the car and to tell her about winter camp. Erin fell for it without hesitation. So off they went to the car, and Tim and I were following discreetly behind them so we could see her reaction. Erin was chattering away, telling Lindsay all about winter camp, but when they walked past Tim's van, Erin kind of slowed down and started looking for my car. When she saw the Jeep, Lindsay hit the button to unlock it. Erin went crazy!! She jumped up and down and hugged Lindsay and screamed. It was quite a sight. Tim and I came running over to join in the celebration. She couldn't stop smiling, which was especially rewarding because she had just been on the verge of tears just a few minutes before because her team had lost the first match badly and the coach had given them quite a long talk. As she ran back to rejoin her team she was smiling and jumping up and down and showing them the new car keys. It didn't matter if they won or lost, no one could take the smile off her face. We made a great memory.

Lindsay's new look

Lindsay is looking more and more like the college student that she is. She shocked us by getting her hair cut shorter than she has had it in a long time. How can we possibly have a daughter in college? It seems we were just that age.

THE Annika

We had a great visit with Annika and her mom Sarah who visited from Minnesota. Annika was just a little over one year old when they left our little back house and moved to Minnesota to be near family. She is now 2 1/2 years old and quite the character. Mutual friends came to visit and play, and we got to go to their favorite restaurants (In n Out and a local Mexican restaurant). Their visit went by way to fast, but we loved being with them. And next time we see them they will have a new little brother or sister for Annika (this summer!).

45 and 23

January brings my birthday (Jan 8th) and our wedding anniversary (Jan 12th). It was hard for me to admit I'm 45 this year. How can that be? I don't feel that old! This was the first year I wasn't that excited about celebrating. I think I'd like to stop having birthdays now. It won't stop me from getting older, but it will stop reminding me how old I am. Despite my lack of enthusiasm, we celebrated anyway. Shayleen had us over for dinner and fixed all my favorites; enchiladas, rice, beans, homemade salsa, guacamole and chips. With brownies and ice cream for dessert! My jeans fit a little snugger now! And I bought myself a birthday present: new everyday dishes. It was time to replace the 80's looking dishes we got as wedding gifts 23 years ago.



Then this last weekend Tim and I celebrated our anniversary by spending the night in Old town Pasadena and going to a very nice dinner. We did a little shopping and enjoyed just being together, without interruptions or distractions. On Sunday we drove up to the the back side of the San Gabriel mountains to a little known ski area called Mt. Waterman. There were several feet of snow there, and the solitary lift was running, but nobody was on it. There were a few cars pulled over in turnouts along the road so the passengers could play in the snow. From there we went down to Palmdale on the desert side of the mountain range, and then looped back around to the backside of Wrightwood, where there were TONS of people playing in the snow. We literally saw thousands of cars either parked on the side of the road, or slowly inching there way trying to get to the snow. For miles it was an endless stretch of cars. But when we pulled off into the small town of Wrightwood, there were a normal amount of people checking out the restaurants and coffee places. As we drove we dreamed and planned for things we would like to do in the future. (I know what you young ones are thinking, how much of a future is there for two 45 year olds who've been married 23 years? Plenty!) As we drove back down from the mountains we stopped at Vince's to top off the weekend of indulgence with spaghetti. I may never need to eat again!

And so, of my 45 years, I've been married 23 years. Not as clean of a ratio as last year when it was 44 and 22, but I'm looking forward all the same to more and more of my years spent with a man who loves me and I love in return.