A day of women!

My family's version of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood is our own "club" called Crafty Chix. We get together every other month and do crafts of one sort or another. Sometimes its an old favorite and other times it's something new and exciting! The group includes me, my sister, my mother, my sister-in-law, and my mother-in-law. That's it. Someday Ruth will get to come and she's counting the seconds!

We also celebrate one of our birthday's each time. This month it was my mother-in-law, Jerryne's birthday. She turned 75 years old last week. Amazing, huh? She is as beautiful inside as she is outside. I am the luckiest daughter-in-law in the world! She doesn't look or act anywhere near 75 years old.

One of our newer traditions each year is to do a field trip. Sometimes it's a crafty related field trip. Other times, not so much. This time, we went to Goodwill in Scotts Valley for a little thrifting. I found a very cute sweater. :) Next door to Goodwill, however, is a furniture consignment shop. They have very nice things and their prices are reasonable. My mom and I had been in there on Thursday. They had a gorgeous leather gametable of exactly the type we'd like in our living room. We have four beautiful old chairs that look like leather but aren't that belonged to my husband's grandparents. We went back today and looked at the table. It's still gorgeous. They all talked me in to buying it and so I called Greg to get his blessing - he hadn't seen it!!! He said to measure it and then go for it. The measurements worked and I bought it. It was pouring rain so Greg didn't come down in the truck to get it. We'll pick it up on Tuesday! So excited. Here it is. The white on the surface is the "sold" sign!

I can't wait to get it in my house! It is going to be so lovely with the green chairs!

Oh, and for more on the crafts we crafty chix did today, well, that would be covered on my CraftyPoodle blog!

Oh, and I saw a cute little Oak Titmouse today -- actually a pair of them are nesting in my sister-in-law's deck in a birdhouse my nephew built. They are adorable little birds who mate for life. They live in the Oak trees of California and are, therefore, on the Audobon Watch List.

Sunday, we are off to the dog show. This is a huge "benched" show in San Francisco. A benched show means that the dogs are on exhibit all day as well as being entered and shown in the show. It's a great chance for us to go look at lots of different breeds and get a feel for what type of breed we are interested in for our next dog as well as connecting with some responsible breeders. This is something that I know a lot about -- I used to breed, train, and show Labrador Retrievers. I used to go to this show every year and show my own dogs. It will be chaotic and loud and I know I'll have a headache when we leave. But, oooooooh, it's gonna be fun.

Quilt Show!

Quilt: There's A Place Called Mars
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

Or as my husband sarcastically put it when he dropped me off . . . QuiltConXV. :)

What a great day. I went to the quilt show -- Greg took the kids to Great America for the day. We all had fun!

I saw so many amazing quilts. This one was perhaps my favorite. Here are more that I saw and liked enough to photograph. [Click]

Spent the day with Jody. Had lunch with my friend, Denine, and her mom. I got in the car at the end feeling utterly relaxed and happy! Hurrah!

A fun, rowdy night at my house

We had our BBQ tonight. Really a fun evening. Too much food. Too much wine. Games and silliness. Kids from first grade to 6th grade running rampant throughout the house. Wild.

We spent all day cleaning house -- we need to entertain more often! We actually were done about an hour early and had time to do some fiddly things which was nice. The kids worked hard with me which was nice. Greg got a ton done as well even though he had to do some work and go to a meeting with an architectural client. Wheeee!

This morning I woke up to that odd combination of a huge mess and yet a clean house. The kitchen was full of dishes needing to be done but the rest of the house needed only a quick tidy up. Very cool.

Now our focus as a family shifts to getting ready for our camping trip -- we're going with the same gang of people that were at the BBQ so it's extra good for the kids and everyone to get together.

I talked to my advisor and got good news -- I am able to do the Math Coordinator position as and classroom observations, lessons as needed, etc. So, that was great news! I am so happy. If the Math job doesn't work out, I can sub instead which is just fine. Yay!

So, moving forward one step at a time!

My Sister ROCKS!

jody_results
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

My Sister, Jody Sumrall, ran a MARATHON on her 41st birthday! How much does she rock?

She rockety-rock-rocks!

So proud!

Today, the kids and I rode BART from Millbrae to Fremont. We walked about 2 miles back and forth around the race finish area. We went up to Jody and Matt's room on the 17th floor of the Hyatt. We saw George and Gracie [click] from their balcony. Such an amazing day!

Adventures in SF

Today, the kids and I are off to San Francisco to support my sister as she runs the SF Marathon on her birthday -- she's turning 41 today!

Well, support AS she runs is a misnomer. She's already running and I'm only supporting by watching the results online ([click] -- her bib number is 3461 her name is Jody Sumrall -- only seems to work on PCs running IE). She started at 6:13 this morning and I don't expect the first result to appear (mile 7.4) for another 35 minutes.

We're leaving here at 8am. Greg will drive us to the BART station in Millbrae and drop us off. Then he's going over to hang out during recording and the kids and I will hop on BART and head off to SF. We'll get off at the Embarcadero station and head down to Justin Herman Plaza were all the action is. We should be there a good 1/2 hour before she could possibly finish.

We're meeting her husband, Matt, and my parents there. I can't wait. I wish I were more organized and had signs and banners and the like. The best I can do is make sure I've got the camera all ready and that we're wearing layers!

So, send good, healthy, running well marathon thoughts out SF way for my sister. I'm so proud of her!!!
(She won't thank me for posting this picture but I can't find the one of her finishing the 1/2 Marathon in October sooooooo . . . )

Found Beauty and Made Beauty

beautifulmoth.jpg
Originally uploaded by egret's nest.

I seem to be having trouble taking pictures that aren't all blurry but still this is a gorgeous moth. That pale lime green color. Wow!

Off to Crafty Chix [click] today. We're dying wool with Kool-Aid today. Should be a blast. I also want to dye some other kinds of wool (like old sweaters that I can felt and make things out of ) but I haven't hit the thrift store. It took too long to run my errands and so I was too tired to do it yesterday. That and too hot. It was 103 at my house yesterday.

Celebrating my sister, Jody's birthday [click] today at Crafty Chix. I think it hurt her feelings that Mom wasn't there. Ruthie and I picked out some lovely beads for her and I got her a funny card.

Next weekend the girl runs a marathon [click] for the first time ever! She's amazing!

Hopefully I'll have some wooly photos later to share -- our made beauty. Crafty Chix is SUCH fun.

Think good thoughts!

I finally got the phone call. Well, I worked the system and made it happen. No, not the job system. The great cosmic karma system. I knew that if I went shopping today and didn't get home until after 5pm, then the phonecall would have come through. But, if I came straight home from school . . . well, I'd be sitting staring at the phone again.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Anyway, I have to call tomorrow when school is over (yea, right, like I won't call at recess!). Hopefully, we'll schedule an interview SOON and I can get over this awful anxiety!

Well, I also had lunch with the new judge [click]! I'm so proud of her! We had a great lunch at The Crepe Place [click] in Santa Cruz. YUMMY! I had an aspargus and smoked salmon crepe. Utterly delish! (In fact, I'm finishing it now!) I got to her about how trying cases is going and she got to hear me whine about my little darlings in summer school. Good times!

I talked to my mom and the kids tonight. They are doing well. Art camp is "awesome" and "hard" depending on who you talk to. I'm not sure why Gage is finding it so hard. My mom says it's because he's taking it so seriously and thinking so much. I don't know. Ruthie is having a blast and totally looking forward to waking up tomorrow morning an 8 year old girl. Me, I'm not looking forward to waking up in an empty house tomorrow on Ruthie's 8th birthday. Still, we'll celebrate when she comes home. That way she can stretch it out a lot! I miss them.

Last night, I finally had my normal reaction to being home alone. I couldn't get to sleep. 1:30, I finally turned off the light and said, "To Hell with it, I'll just stare at the dark then." It eventually worked but took awhile. I did okay today but if the same thing happens tonight . . . won't be so good tomorrow!