Trixie's Travels...

Update, update...let me hear ya say update!

I go on vacation, get back and Whabam! no blogging... no nothing - that is because I got home and started running a mega-marathon of things to do.  I would like to know who in their right mind thinks that a stay at home mom has nothing to do - can I just say that whoever that may be, they are FULL OF IT!!!

Let me share....

Sunday, Dec. 8th: I was up early the next morning shopping for food as the next evening was our annual homeschool Mom's Night Out Christmas Celebration at our house.  On the menu was homemade chicken noodle soup, homemade rolls, salad and various other things.  I cook the food and provide a place for the ladies to meet and they get to kick up their heels and enjoy themselves.  Sunday I spent cooking up a storm. 

Monday, Dec. 9th:  Before the ladies were to come to our house, the family and I went out to our homeschool garden farm and proceeded to "process" 12 chickens.  "Process" is that fancy word that is used to say that we killed them.  Yes, on a chilly 40 degree day we were out at the farm - dunking, plucking and gutting.  Pook and Sis helped out but Mem couldn't watch.  It was too much and too cold - that is ok, we understood. 

The ladies arrived about 6:30 and we sat 27 ladies in our little ranch house.  What fun! 

We had a cookie exchange - where some of the ladies pulled out their best cookie recipes and swapped samples, while others were ready to start stealing the cutest ornaments from others. 

No mercy was shown!

Tuesday, Dec 10th: I crashed and Hot Rocks worked and prepared his term papers.

Wednesday, Dec. 11th:  We partied at Community Bible Study in our children's classes and Mem had her weekly playdate.  We were the host for that playdate.  Hot Rocks worked and continued working on his term papers.

Thursday, Dec. 11th:  Mem had "p"re-school (letter of the day was "P") and did a couple of activities for her pageant that would happen that weekend.  Sis had cavities filled.  I went to a dinner with about 26 other ladies at Olive Garden.  Hot Rocks is still working and still writing his term papers!

Friday, Dec. 12th:  Time for our annual homeschool Christmas Party with the kids.  That filled the morning/afternoon with fun and games.  I needed to find tri-tip somewhere that wasn't going to cost an arm and a leg, so I shopped all over town and picked some up for the Community Bible Study Leaders dinner that evening.  Hot Rocks is still working nights so I had to fire up the BBQ and try not to burn those babies.  Yeah!  I did it!  I did it!  I am so not the BBQ'er in the family - that is Hot Rocks specialty.  Dropped the kids off at my Dad's and when it was time to pick them up, I spent a little time hanging out there and catching up with my step-mom's son. 

Sat, Dec. 13th:  Hot Rocks is still writing out those dang-blasted term papers and I went to a really lovely Ladies Christmas luncheon where I attend church.  The ladies that hosted the tables pulled out all the stops, I felt like I was dining at Hearst Castle or something and the things that were shared were so sincere, touching, beautiful and left me encouraged and in tears. 

Sun, Dec. 14th:  Went to church in the a.m., then came home and got ready for Mem's Little Lights Pageant.  She was so funny.  They were to perform 4 songs and that was it.  She knew them all, she had been singing them for days but when it was time to perform she just mouthed the words.  Why?  As she explained, "I can't look at everyone and sing too!  I can only do one thing at a time." 

She was making fabulous eye contact with all of the family, but couldn't do that and sing!  Obviously, multi-tasking is not a strong point with her.  LOL! The kids works of heart

were displayed throughout the house.

Mon, Dec. 15th:  I crashed and picked up the house from the tornado that was left from the previous days.  The kids settled down and instead of taking their work everywhere we went, they got to sit down and quietly do it at home.

Tues, Dec. 16th:  Another peaceful day at home.  Pook and Sis had Geography co-op and then relaxed at home and worked on their school stuff and later in the afternoon we had friends over to make & decorate cookies.

 Lots of cookies,

lots

 

and lots of cookies...

Wed, Dec. 17th:  I had to drop the truck off for body repair.  The day before we left Arizona someone wanted to share some love from this beautiful time of the year and left a lovely mark on our lives (via a nice huge dent on the truck).  No note, just some loving soul who wanted to anonymously bless us.  Hopefully, we get it back Christmas Eve.

Mem had her playdate with one of her dearest friends later in the afternoon.

Thurs, Dec. 18th:  Mem had her Preschool Christmas party. 

Sis had piano and then she was off to this amazing Progressive Dinner with about 30 other kids her age.  It started at 4pm but she couldn't meet up with them until after piano.  We on the other hand, enjoyed a meal out together and met up with some friends in front of Starbucks. 

That leaves us today, Fri. Dec. 19th:  The kids and I went to UC Berkeley to enjoy one of their schooltime performances, Pomegranates and Figs: A Jewish Feast of Music.  Then we zipped out to Discovery Bay for Pook's Christmas party with kids around his age. 

All I can say is "so much for enjoying a peaceful Christmas season" HA!  Maybe next year but then again, I do have a few days left before Christmas. I might unwind and do a little baking, that always seems to help slow things down a bit.

Hope y'all have a very Merry Christmas, if I don't write before then!

Did you VOTE??

Yesterday was Election Day!  A very important day for many reasons,, but for me it was to stir my kid's hearts towards making responsible and intelligent decisions when it comes time for them to vote.  Let's face it, our children are excited about things when we are excited about things and a lot of the choices that we make today, effect their future in a greater way than we realize.

I decided to make my trip to the polls a "field trip".  We had gone over some of the Propositions and they had watched me fill out my sample ballot.  They watched as I received my ballots from the poll worker, watched as I filled in all my little circles, then they assisted feeding my ballots into the machine.  They chatted with the poll workers and each of them proudly put on their "I Voted" sticker.

I don't know if you can see them in this picture.....

We then drove around the town to locate a number of the important city buildings in our town for their Geography Class.  The local City Hall, Police Department, Post Office, Bank, Library, and Fire Department.  They already knew where all of them were but they needed to get addresses for their class.

Next stop was Starbucks for our free tall coffee...simply for voting!

We finally got home, whipped up a little dinner and then headed over to Grandma's & Poppa's to watch the results roll in....needless to say we were up until 2am.

Voting is a great right to not take for granted nor to neglect; a vote that has been researched and is informed is of even greater value.  May we not take for granted this beautiful right we possess in our country.

What is it like to touch a dragonfly?

Our yard has become this crazy habitat for everything.  Bees love it.  Alligator lizards thrive here.  Frogs hop by.  How could I forget our abundance precious preying mantises and a bazillion lady bugs! That doesn't include our own menagerie of the rabbit, dog, chickens and our resident bachelor finch. We have the occasional raccoon, skunk and opossum leave their mark around here too.  Just think, this is all in a suburb!

One critter though that we were waiting for, was our dragonflies.  They come and go and they are BIG! Just look....

The great thing about them is watching their eyes.  While I was taking the pictures those little bug eyes were zipping all over. 

Mem needed to get in the picture too.  Let's see if she can touch one.....

Nope, not this time but she doesn't give up easy when she really wants something.  Gee, I wonder who she gets that from?  Can she do it? 

 

OF COURSE, she can!

That little guy just let her pet him like he belonged to her.  Not even bugs deter this girl...amazing!

Happy Trails!

Favorite things...

this is one of them....

It is my Nana's recipe for Baked Custard.  Did you notice how much of it was gone?  Yep, that is how much I, alone, have eaten since last night when I made it.  I can't keep my hands off of it.  The weather turned cooler and my thoughts went to this dessert; so I pulled out my recipe that was on the back of a card that Nana had sent me.  When I pulled it out of my recipe box, I started to well up with tears as I thought about her....I miss her very much. 

I had to postpone my celebration of Karrie's birthday because my daughter, Makayla, needed to take a little priority.  (Karrie won't even notice because my Dad and step-mom are at her house right now - spending quality Karrie time).

Do you remember this stamp from SU!?  It is dated 1995 - it's an antique!

Well, Button Bear was stamped and stamped and stamped this many times...

only to have me do this to him...

Why do you ask?  Well, I will tell you why...Makayla wants to have her birthday at Build-A-Bear so why not cut the little guy up so that you have to "build" him back again?

It has taken me 3 days with these invites - I had to cut the holes in the middle of the card because my punch didn't give me enough room to have it evenly spaced in the middle and I don't have the really cool cutter that Karrie and Dana have from Creative Memories (yes, I remember using that baby last stamp fest!!!) But that is OK, because M is soooo worth it!  She would come in daily to check on the progress of the cards and today her comment was "Mom, those turned out really good.  You did a great job."  I love the kudos from my kids when I get them!

On a side note, I picked up these cute stamps at Michael's for $1 each - aren't they cute?  I saw pumpkins and I NEEDED them.

That is it for tonight, now that I can mail these babies, I hope to get back to Karrie but I know that I can wait a few more days until my Dad leaves and then she'll need some more attention...LOL

Until then, happy trails!

We apologize for the inconvience but we need to interrupt your Special Presentation...

Yep, I'm takin' a few moments from my sister's spotlight to tell you all about the FUN that my hubby and I had the other night.  Our anniversary was a couple of weeks ago and prior to that date he tried to surprise me with a night out at the opera in SF.  Well, the funny guy left the info up on the computer and the nosy person that I can be popped over there to see what was going on - well, low and behold he had bought tickets to the opera!!!!  To my utter shock and amazement, I about had a heart attack because I distinctly remember not to long ago that he might of said "I will NEVER go to the opera."  Makayla and I saw "The Barber of Seville" last year and we had a ball. 

We finally got out of the house at about 4-ish and headed to the city.  We stopped in at a specialty grocery store called Mollie's Grocery - we both love to snoop around in grocery stores like that to see what they carry and what unusual things we can find.  We found a totally cool gourd for Chase to sketch/paint.  He loved it and Makayla is on an Asian Sesame salad kick, so we bought her a salad dressing that was on sale that she hadn't tried yet.  I know they are odd things to get your kids but, they loved them none the less. 

We wanted to go to Osaka for dinner

but they did not open until 5:30 for dinner so we had about 20 minutes to kill.  We went next door to a place called Hydra. 

You can make your own soap there and that is what we did - we made a bar of soap to celebrate our anniversary.  Rob cut out the heart and initials while I did all the little pink swirly things in the soap.  The store employee (who was so FUN - had a totally cute Betsey Johnson bag) filled the mold with glycerin and the lavender scent and it firmed up while we ate next door. This is what it looked like before the glycerin...

and this is  what it looked like after (how do you like my new haircut Karrie???)

On the other side of Osaka, was this really neat paper store called Paper Source and I found this cute little ditty there

- they didn't have a "K", "M" or an "A" but that doesn't mean that they aren't out there somewhere! Since it is a big chipboard "T" - I could probably make one for each of those lovelies myself.

After dinner, we had decided that we would have dessert - the gal at Hydra recommended a place a couple blocks up on Fillmore called Bittersweet, it is a "chocolate cafe".

They have hot chocolates, a multitude of different chocolate cars from all over the world and some mighty-fine homemade chocolate desserts.  This place was divine!  I did not feel guilty about having dessert at all.  They had forgotten our drinks that we ordered.  Rob had gotten a spicy hot chocolate and I had my usual Latte so they profusely apologized and I have to say they were so sincere and it was some of the BEST customer service we have ever had!  They asked if they could compensate us, I had told them it was no big deal but when they had finished our drinks they asked again so they gave us these delicious little dark chocolate truffles.

I thought there was only one in the box but when I opened it later in the evening, there were THREE!!!!  How nice is that???!!!

Well, it was time to leave to head out to the War Memorial where the we had our tickets for the opera.  We arrived with a few minutes to spare to see.....
Samson & Delilah.  It was a 3 hour production and it was soooo amazing!  The sets never cease to impress me.  In each act they had the most incredible props/sets.  The singers were so wonderful to listen to.  This was the first time that I had heard an opera in French - the only time I knew what they were saying was when Samson told Delilah he loved her! "Delilah....Je t'aime..."

It was a wonderful evening and when we left this opera this is what we saw across the street - SF City Hall and the moon illuminating above....

All in all a very relaxing evening with my hubby doing things we don't normally get to do together...

Now back to our Special Presentation....

HEY! It's me, Karrie!!

Since that SLACKER Trina can't get her butt in gear and post something; I am doing it on her behalf. I just may have to make a card to post too! LOL

So, wanna know what the SLACKER has been up to? Too much if you ask me! Let's see here...

Last Sunday: Trina and family went to church in the morning and then she went to a Jewelry party over at Tomisita's. She left the jewelry party and went to Nikki's and THEN went back to Tomisita's for dinner. Now, I don't know who Tomisita is but she is sure spending an awful lot of time with her. As for Nikki? I know her and well, she is nothing but trouble. LOL

Monday: Trina met someone for coffee and hung out with this "person" for like two hours. Can you believe that? She doesn't even sit with me that long over coffee. GEEZ!

Tuesday: Trina took the new truck to get the tail light fixed. Now tell me, what is up with that? Trina, did you already get in an accident? Back into something? :) After taking the truck to the dealer Trina and the kids went to a year book signing party for home schooling. I just have to say something here... year book signing party? What kind of home schooling thing is this? We didn't even have that in PUBLIC school! I think you all are just making things up as you go along so that you don't have to do school work! HA! (just kidding here, don't want anyone to get offended) :)

Wednesday: Trina had Bible study in the morning and then worked on the childrens curriculum (sp?) for Childrens Ministry with a couple of ladies from church. She really IS busy, huh? Yep.

Thursday: Makayla had a sign language pool party. Where does swimming and sign language come together? Is anyone else questioning this? I AM!! All they do over there is party! LOLOL After the party... Trina received a TWO HOUR pedicure from NIKKI!! I am going to say that Nikki gets the friend of the year award for having to touch Trina's stinky feet for two whole hours!!!!! Nikki, Trina owes you BIG TIME!! And, uh, when do I get my pedicure? LOL

Friday: (this was a big day) The family celebrated Father's Day early with Rob since he was headed out of town on Saturday. Then, Trina went to ANOTHER jewelry party (good thing Rob is working all this OT in order to pay for Trina's jewelry habit, huh??? LOL). But before she went to the jewelry party? She gave the "Duker" a doggie bath. Bet he looks handsome now!!

But that is not all for Friday, oh no, Chase had go and get a headache so bad that he was RUSHED to the ER in an AMBULANCE!! Oh yeah! NICE ONE CHASE!!! Thank goodness the little turd is doing better though. :) Love ya big guy! xoxoxo from Auntie!! :)

So today (saturday) Rob took off for Bay, St. Louis Mississippi. Does that make sense? I believe he is helping with the Hurricane Katrina victims. That man has a heart of gold, truly!! Anyway, Rob won't be home until next week. :( I am sure his family will miss him while he is gone...

WHEW...need to take a breather...aren't you exhausted just from reading all of this? LOL I would have gone insane by now if this had been my week. Yeah, no thank you!! Oh and get this, while all of this was going on, Trina still managed to get the house cleaned AND finally finish the never ending loads of laundry! AMAZING!!

Okay, so back to the lchaos...next week; Trina, Makayla and Tottie are headed to Vegas for Makayla's ballet competition. Good luck sweetie, Auntie is cheering for you!! xoxoxox As soon as they get back from Vegas, Trina has to repack everything and start out for MONTANA where she is going to meet up with ME!! YEAH!!

So there you have it; an update on the Cookman Chaos. Crazy I tell you, just CRAZY!! Hopefully, Trina will be able to catch her breath and catch you up herself. Until then, the SLACKER (snorting over here) will be off galavanting around the town/state, etc and you will be stuck with me. LOLOL

Alrighty, I am off to take a picture of a card Trina made so that you can all look at something CUTE rather than listening to me ramble on... see ya in a bit! :) And, uh, good talking to you! LOL

Would you please join me in a moment of silence?

Yes, it is true another death has fallen upon our household.  This one was unexpected and brought sudden grief.  She was so reliable, we could always count on her.  Not only could we count on her but many others counted on her.  She was gentle to strangers, always welcomed anyone in.  Occasionally made you hot under the collar, yes our poor 1990 Mazda B2200 has died.

We had her for almost 12 years, she came to us in 1996 with 7 years under her belts and 20K miles on her engine.  She moved countless families.  She made innumerable dump runs.  She made midnight dashes to local fields to dispose of excess dirt from yards.  She was so strong - she could haul chairs and tables and not be bogged down.  Entire networks for schools were gently transported with her loving touch. She was smooth in her shifting and no matter how many times she wasn't bathed, she kept that special glow for her driver. 

Yes, we will miss our little Mazda so this is for the one who drove you for so long....

Someone has come to fill your tire tracks....

but no one will ever be able to fully take your place.

                                                            

                                                            Mazda B2200
                                                        Oct. 1996 - May 2007
                                                            Rest in Peace