this is my ride!

Amy sent this to me...really funny...if I weren't so lazy I'd take some
pictures to prove that this IS my ride...just substitute scone crumbs for fries, crunchy-hippie bumper stickers replace the honor student ones, switch the diet coke with an americano...and have those golf balls cracking the front window from driving down Pershing...

loved reading this book!

This book was recommended to me by Anne
at the Grove and I bought it because I just couldn't
say NO when all I really wanted was the book Virgin Earth
that I mentioned in a previous post that turned out to be
horrible and ridiculous.... Anyway, Sight Hound is such
a good book...funny, sweet, great characters...
It was perfect for 3 days in the cabin
by the fire...

Happy Birthday Pop!

This goes out to my Pop. Happy Birthday to the Big Boss.

Our 5th Spring in Idyllwild!

A Touch of Greatness!

Cami recommended this movie to me many times (check it out here) and we finally watched it while she was here and it is really great and inspiring. Emmett even got a chance to watch some of it and he was fascinated too. It's one of those simple movies with a simple idea that absolutely changes your thinking.

It makes me want to rethink education and imagination and childhood...and reinforces the idea that school should be about much more than stuffing facts into young minds.

Thanks Cami for another great suggestion...you always know what I will like!




And now I am absolutely convinced that our school needs a drama program!!

Happy Birthday Indika!!

This b-day image did a little booty dance but I don't know how to make it do that on the blog...too bad because when I think of Indi I think of a happy dancing girl climbing really really high on a jungle gym at the age of 2!! Always daring! We love you!

Our New Tree!

Forest Pansy Redbud!!!

Cami, Nana and I went to Mission Hills Nursery on a quest for Wisteria and a Western Red Bud but they didnt have either so we settled for a Forest Pansy Redbud that has maroonish leaves in summer instead of green...



I am actually really happy about our choice now!!
It is also a California Native !



The color of the early spring flowers is incredible to me!
...another that I love but we don't have room for is an Australian Acacia! (for you Lydia!)

Happy Birthday Aida!

Ten Years Old! WOW!

Just look at those cute cheeks!

I can't believe we have know this
little girl for so long...still the greatest!

Love from all of us!

memory shots...

These cousins are just starting
to get used to eachother.
Silas wakes up wondering
about "the baby" and Finley
seems to like his company now!











We've had fun at the beach
and the diner. We have
taken lots of
walks to Rebecca's
and many
rides in the car listening
to various music...Silas
likes "Officer Krupke" from West Side Story ...
Finley likes it all!!

we got finley!!!

Check out that
upside-down cuteness!!

Finley is very sweet
and curious
and cuddly
and a little tiger...
she loves apples
and water and her MAMA
and watching her big cousins run around...
she is wary of Silas and Mabel...
(one drools the other is LOUD,
actually they are both loud and drooly...)
We LOVE her!

good-bye to the QUEEN!

The very last show...and there
were six...boy is the
queen exhausted!

you know you need some grown-up time ...

...when...

...everyone's lunch includes a sippy cup, including Matt, and you don't even notice ... this really happened today. Matt says, "Annie come check this out...see anything odd??"...and truthfully I didn't until he told me.

Next time he gets the crusts cut off and the butter in the shape of hearts!!











This (left) is the Star of India where Mac, as a male crew member from 1873, will be working and spending the night with her 5th grade class. She is a 'line-rigger' with a 2 hour night watch and has been practicing songs like..."what do you do with a drunken sailor?....bring 'em to the bilge and make 'em drink it and shave their belly with a rusty razor"...etc. How cool is that!





...Actually I don't need grown-up time...I want to be a kid again! They seem to have a lot of fun nowadays!

two hours to myself...

You'd think I would have all these wonderful plans for my two free hours a week... where Megan has Silas, the kids are in school and I have forbidden myself from cleaning or running horrible errands...but every week I am stumped. Except for a massage/facial I got for Christmas I usually wander around...not wanting to spend money but always spending money. It turns out two hours outside of the house is too short a time span to see a movie or go for a nature hike so I always end up at a book store. Well, this week I bought a couple of books from the Grove and one of them is "Virgin Earth"...by, you guessed it, Philippa Gregory. Yes, another bodice ripper (term coined by Caroline). Except this one combines all my favorite things...the woods, botany, native american culture and a wee bit of bodice ripping, or in this case, loin cloth lifting. Ha.
Anyway, so far it is very "Last of the Mohicans" except no where near as literary and classic. It 's embarressing what I'll read nowadays...if you can call 4 minutes before unconsciousness really reading at all...
By the way...I want to see "The Other Boleyn Girl" when it comes out...definitely a girls night out kinda movie...Matt hopes!!

personal jinx...

this morning was classic...forgot we had the carseat in the car papa took to work...tried to keep Silas out of the puddles/scum at the foot of the driveway...thank goodness for Lydia picking up the kids ...and for puddle-stomping boots...do they make puddle stomping suits?...and will the personal jinx just go away?!




...and here's bonus footage for all of Emmett's rock n roll fans...

spiderwick...

Matt watched Silas so I could take Mac, Emmett and Nana to the movies.We finally got to see Spiderwick, a much anticipated movie from a beloved book series. Of course the differences between movie and book are always a bit annoying...but it's also great to hear your kids say they like a book better...
We really liked it...just the idea of all these hidden creatures that we think are simply petals, feathers, blades of grass etc...great! I love that idea.






Actually the haiku for the day was appropriate, written after a walk with Silas...




droplets of water
the clover is wet from rain
bend down, look close, see?!

best place to work ever...

Plum Pottery...It's always a mess and there is an endless amount of chores to be done but I am thankful for this place...where I can escape three nights a week at the "witching hour" when the kids are getting owly and emotions run high..and on the weekends when I would otherwise plan way to many outings and events...this place calms me!
I get to be creative, hang out with adults, talk politics and in the case of this class...Eat!! Every week someone from the Wednesday night class brings something fabulous. Last night it was awesome guacamole, last week a ridiculously delicious pumpkin cake that Johnny called something like "Choc Full 'O Fat Cake" (I forget exactly the name but you get the idea.) We've had rice pudding and mexican hot chocolate and lemon tarts...and I never have to make them. Wow! I love it when someone actually cooks for ME!
Yes, last night was great... At around 8:00 I got a phone call from home to GO LOOK AT THE MOON. The clouds parted finally and our class stood in the alley looking up at the lunar eclipse. A great night.
Anyway, I love my job if you can even call it that. I would say that the rest of my life is much more difficult...the juggling tasks, the driving everywhere, the orgization of drs. appts and b-days, the volunteering, the LAUNDRY... etc...The fact that I am a potter and teacher is such a blessing! ...

A total eclipse of the MOON! Tonight!!

Perfect timing, unless its cloudy...starts around 5:45 San Diego time becoming complete around 7:00, ending around 9:00! Wow!

relaxing with my baby (doll)...

two interesting new crackle glazes...

...that unfortunately peel right off the rims...back to the drawing board.



I had made a bunch of heart bowls for Valentines day...kinda cheesy but I still love them. The first ones I ever made were for Craig Cami and Finley right after she was born and now I make them whenever I have a dry idea spell because they just make me happy.







Bonus shot: This is what I am looking at as I wait for the above shot to download. Beauty is just everywhere isn't it!!

These are white potato vine flowers with snapdragons and the little yellow guys are those sweet lemony weeds my kids pick and suck on...don't know the name...we call 'em "tasties".
And of course baby Finley smiling back there...
sweetsweetsweet!

first sentences (if you can call them that...)

#1. it's ok mama (after he barfed on me in the middle of the night followed by a breast pat)...
then...
#2. boo again???