Trixie's Travels...

Hot Rocks Plays With Fire

It was that time of year again, when Hot Rocks' work sent him off to Fire School in Elko, NV.  This year, Pook asked if he would take along his stuffed dog and take pictures of his dog doing the things that Hot Rocks does at Fire School. 

I couldn't believe all the places that he took this dog! The pup's name is "Marley", gee, I wonder where he got that from????  

It was time to leave Oakland...

Pook's pup longingly looks out for his master....

 

It's time to suit up and start refreshing on his oil fire fighting skills....

 

There isn't anything like being in control of the water...

 

YES! - it's time for a night burn.  I wanna be like Jack Bauer when I grow up.

 

After all this hard work, it's time to check out the town. Hey! The Pony Express stopped here!

 

Time to visit the Wild Animal Kingdom -

 

 

History was all about him -

 

It's rough being the small guy -

 

He needed a little pick me up and

 

to check in with Pook!

 

Oh, what Hot Rocks will do for his kids!

A Day With My Man

These are far and few between now a days ~ Most of his days consist of work and school and most of the days the kids and I go about our merry way. There are the occasional days of "I hate your schooling" and all the time it takes, but those outbursts only happen when I am really just down right exhausted from life.  

A day had arrived that I could take a little R & R.  I proceeded to instruct the kids of what I wanted them to accomplish within a certain time period and I was taking the rest of the day off.  

It started at 9:30 am and I made an appointment to redeem a gift certificate that I had received from my in-laws almost a year ago.  It was for a local day spa.  I hadn't heard much about it and it looked really small to be what I thought of as good but much to my surprise...it was one of the most relaxing times I had had in a while.  It was a glorious 2+ hours at the day spa.  I came home like melted butter.  I could barely walk in our house without the thought of just going directly to bed entering my mind.

Hot Rocks and I were heading back to Berkeley to try and get to the eating place that was CLOSED with the kids and we made it by the skin of our teeth.  Toni had taken me here over 2 decades ago and we still make it back to Bette's Oceanview Diner.  

It is such a fun place to eat - noisy, full of life and the food is top dog goodness.  

We enjoyed a very late breakfast and then headed back over to the Pasta Shop so that Hot Rocks could check out all that Pook had gazed upon (and more, I might add).

We were in awe of the pasta.  

Seeing pasta in boxes just made it seem that more rustic and more inviting.

I had found a new tea to send to a friend as a late birthday present.  There were specialty salts - Hot Rock's latest new ingredient while cooking.  Not to mention, there were some mighty fine desserts that were under glass just waiting to be indulged in.  

After checking out the Pasta Store we headed over to a new coffee shop find to give it the ole' taste test.  At first, we drove right past it because we thought it was a union hall but once we made it back around the block - it was just what we were looking for.  

At Local 123 the decor is comfortable, welcoming and very open.  

I like that kind of atmosphere.  There was a back patio that had the same feel

 and you didn't feel like you were shoved into a hole.  Artwork and photography were on the walls. 

 I didn't look close enough to see if it was a local artist.  

The thing that I found most interesting here was that they put fresh mint leaves in hot water and gave you an extra glass of ice to pour the water in after it had been infused with the mint flavor.  It was so refreshing - especially with my slice of chocolate cake from the Pasta Store that we had just visited.  My latte was perfect.  

They happen to use beans from one of our other favorite coffees spots - Flying Goat in Healdsburg.  

The barista (and I am assuming owner) uses local fresh ingredients to make the tasty treats they sell.  She had a huge zucchini on the counter and was asking for figs and what not from people that came in.  To me, that is just really cool.  

Just a couple of shops down, was this great cheese shop that had been around for awhile.  

They had a huge selection of  cheese and more specialty items.  It was also a deli. At this point we were beyond full but somehow Hot Rocks still proceeded to get a few more food items here.  I got to talk to a sweet lady about taking pictures and what I thought of my camera.  

We did a few more things and ended up in a town closer to home for dinner.  We even ran into some friends there and chatted for a while.  Their son, Dude, let me see his feet for a while and it was a nice ending to a long awaited time with my man.  

I came home and crashed on my pillow.  Ahhhhh, such is life.

Bringing in the New Year.... our family style...

It was a cold foggy day today in our area and I wanted to just throw on my flannel pj's, stoke up a big ole roarin' fire and bring in the New Year watchin' Hot Rocks play on Facebook.  Really.... what more could a girl want?  Some friends had invited us to an 80's New Year's Eve party and well, Hot Rocks and I come from the 80's era and he couldn't resist popping in to say "Hello".

My amazing date became the one and only Chuck Norris - I mean come on, look at the resemblance between the two.  Incredible! 

We stayed for a little bit but needed to get the kiddos to their designated parties this year and Hot Rocks and I would grab a bite to eat before he had to get home to get some sleep for work the next day.  At least that is what we thought.

We couldn't find the church that the older kids were having a "lock-in" at and while we were checking our Mapquest map and our GPS system - we saw this before our very eyes.  Actually, only Sis did, as our eyes were down trying to figure things out.

It was a miracle, as there was only one person in each car and both of them walked away unharmed.  Hot Rocks jumped into his Emergency Response Training mode and started making sure the people were unharmed,blocking the cars of, calling 911, etc.  The kids and I sat back and waited for him to let us know what he needed next.  Sis gave her report to the officer, Rob got directions from the same officer and we were off to the kids New Yea's Eve bash. 

With the older ones dropped off, Mem was next on the list to spend the night at her chicken wranglin' friend's house...then a bite to eat for us and off to bed for Hot Rocks. 

Ahh, accomplished without anything major - Hot Rocks and I were off to Chili's for dessert and a few moments to talk without interruption.  We came home, kissed the New Year into existence and I was off to get the older kids from their event.  As I am about to round my kids up, I get a phone call..."Mem can't sleep - she doesn't want to be without her family."  Probably due to the accident, we go to pick her up and arrive home safely.

Nice to know that somethings remain the same in our family no matter what year it is...."It's a journey from one chaotic thing to another."

Hey, God bless y'all and Happy New Year.  There are definitely exciting times ahead!

Our doing nothing....

I love when my husband asks "What is on the calendar for such and such a day?"  That means that he has something up his sleeve.  Here I am looking forward to a nice relaxing day...tackling the girls room that I can't even describe....staying in comfy clothes all the day long..possibly baking.  Nope, not gonna happen this weekend..."Let's go to Sacramento and pull brick from Toti's house".  Ahhhh, to be freezing my hiney off, getting my hands muddy, scrambling to dry Mem's pants after she completely pees in them - that is what I call a productive day.

We needed to go pick up the brick.  It was all over the backyard because the house is under extensive remodeling.  There are still a number of trips that we need to take to get the rest of the brick.  They will happen.  We also took Toti up with us so she could see what was going on - it was bittersweet.  Enough said. 

We filled the back of Hot Rock's parents truck (ours is still in the shop) and went off to have dinner.  On our way to dinner there is this great little European Pastry Shop near Toti's house.  I had been dying to go in.  All I can say is that if you are in Carmichael....you should stop here.

The place is called Mirabelle and it is filled with exquisite yumminess!

Your delightful goodies are boxed with a doilie on the bottom.

When the weather is nice they even have a lovely little sitting area in front with a fountain. 

On our way home from the day's productiveness, we passed through this quaint little river road town.  We all saw this place from the road and had to go down to get a closer look. 

The street was so quiet, so peaceful, so charming.....so where I wanted to live!

We always love looking at lights and all of us just looked at the lights, sighed and had one of those sweet times that Christmas brings. 

The pictures can't quite capture the beauty of what we saw, maybe because we saw more with our heart than with our eyes.  To see the lights against the blackest background - just shining - illuminating powerfully all together - the strings of lights showcasing the star - yep, just a sweet Christmas moment. 

May the light of Christ illuminate in your heart during this season and each day thereafter. 

Missing You

This Saturday will be 3 weeks without him and I knew that this would be about the time that my steam would run low and I would start to miss him.  It isn't because of what he can do for me, I just miss him.  I miss driving him crazy and him having to repeat things a few times because I have forgotten them a few times.  I miss his voice...the phone is different than in person.

I can't tell him that though, he'll want to try and fix it.  He is that way, God created him that way, wanting to always make things right or fix them.  He can't and he is to far away to try and it is not fair to put that pressure on him when he has something else he needs to pay attention to. 

But dang, I wish I could be there for a couple of days, because he sure does look good in his uniform!

We just gotta keep pushin' through it - thank God, He is my strength!

Thunder & Lightning

A few years back we were visiting some family friends and there was this little plaque on the wall that said this:

                           "We are a match made in heaven, just like thunder and lightning"

Hot Rocks and I claimed that as our special way of explaining our marriage to each other - so it has been for the past 13 years. 

If there is one thing that you should know about Hot Rocks is that he loves 80's music, I am not kidding when I say that the man knows every word to every song and who sang it and what year it was out. 

Not me, I am musically inept, it's ok I can admit it, it isn't a matter of being shy and being talented.  I am just not talented with music at all, not playing it, not remembering it, not keeping time with it... NOTHING!   It came as a great shock to my kids the other day,  when we were going to one of our many doctor appointments this week, that I knew a song.  I just didn't know this song, I sang it liked I owned it... all the inflections of voice, every word pronounced correctly, not a made-up lyric in it.  Pook actually told me,  "Mom, you are really scaring me."  My kids had never seen this side of me before.  That is what you get when the Christian station is all jacked up and the next station on the list to listen to is Jazz. 

I thought about how much I loved this song as a kid.  I would vacuum the house and use the handle as a microphone!  (I wasn't the only one in my family that did that either, huh Karrie!) Then I thought about Hot Rocks and I missed him because the words were pretty much how I felt....so with that said this one's for you babe:

• MTV
Now if only I could fit into that pink leotard jumpsuit thingy that she has on - things would be lookin' pretty good. Hot Rocks, Happy Anniversary, this is the best I could do with you on the other side of the country. Sending a little 80's music from me to you! Think of it as a classic "song dedication". Miss your face!

 

Pullin' Up My Bootstraps

Hot Rocks left for his military chaplaincy training this weekend.    He'll be gone a while so that means I've got to pull up my ole' bootstraps and just start takin' things as they come.  It all started the day he left...up at 4 am...kids out of bed by 4:30am and leaving the house by 5am for the airport.  We arrived at the airport by 6am for his whatever time flight.  The kids were partially coherent when we got there but as soon as the car stopped that was a different story - they were all WIDE awake...

Look at those smiling faces at o'dark thirty in the morning....

Hot Rocks needed to check in his bag when we arrived and then we were totally blessed because they gave us all a security pass so that we could go to the gate.  That was soooo cool!  We totally didn't expect it and we were all giddy about it!

You know when the morning routine is interrupted and boy, let me tell you....did we all have to go to the bathroom when we got to the gate! (Just keepin' it real!)  We just played....it had been so long since I had seen anyone off at the gate!  It made it so much easier for the kids - that was the most important.  The kids played around and weren't even grouchy!

Every time I looked at Mem she had these totally bloodshot eyes but you can't tell in this great picture of her!  I think Sis took this picture - she got a little camera happy and that is an understatement!

Then it was time for him to depart,

that is when Mem lost it - we left the terminal with her whaling all the way down.  Yeah, that was a tough one but soon appeased with thoughts of camping in the backyard, candy, more candy, oh yeah, a lot of candy!  I'm just kidding - no bribery just lots of love and letting her "quietly" get it out instead of like a screamin' banshee.  Mem even made Sis cry - then we talked about how blessed we were that he wasn't being sent out for months/years and it was just weeks; that took the sting away a little bit... but for us, it is still out of the ordinary and it still stings.

The first night Mem woke up yelling from a bad dream and you'll never guess what it was about????  WORKSHEETS!  "Mom, please don't make me color anymore"  I had to laugh and then I thought of what an older lady that is dear to my heart said to me..."You know when a dog takes a bath and afterwards takes their whole body and just shakes the water off?  That is what you need to do with things now."  So I envisioned myself with all the responsibilities that lay before me, the terror of the worksheets (haha), the laundry, the schooling, the meals, the hurts that I have going on deep in my heart, and I just started shaking my body and I heard the sweet words that have brought me great comfort over the years "My grace is sufficient, my strength is made perfect in your weakness".  Thank you Jesus that I/we are never alone and I don't have to even try to do it with my own strength. aaahhhh!

More fun days ahead...stayed tuned!  Tomorrow is a whopper! LOL!

Boy, did I leave you in a wonder....

didn't even finish my story and I have so much more to share - some great fun happening here!

OK, so we finally go to bed Saturday night AND this is most important, we get to sleep more than 5 hours.  Ahhhh, yes, sweet sleep!  I won't tell you about how every time we hopped in the car I turned my head and was out like a light because I had never gotten any sleep from the first night we arrived (let's just skip all that).

That brings us up to Sunday - we were heading up to D.C. to do a wee bit of sight-seeing and fly out the next day.  On the way into D.C., we stopped at Mount Vernon, home to none other than good ole' George Washington.  Do you see a theme here?  Presidents, lots of Presidents.  We wanted to tour inside the house before it started to rain hard again.

We went on a house tour and just so you know, when we went on the tours INSIDE the houses you cannot take pictures because of copyright laws and what not.  Some of the things that are in the houses are "loaned" so the residence/foundation does not actually own the piece that is in the house.

Again, President Washington was a pretty amazing man.  He owned about 10K acres of land around his home but now "only" about 550 acres are still with the house.  WOW!  I would be happy with just like 2-3 maybe 10,  then I can justify that John Deere.   

After going through one of the gardens, we ran into this lovely lady.  She is a Master Gardener from Maryland and they "bring" her down each year to answer any garden questions that the visitors might have.

We stood there and talked for quite a while about the purposes of gardens in the days of Washington and today.  Did you know that Washington and Jefferson were Horticulturists in their own way and day?  One of the purposes of their gardens was to share with the community around them.  They did not just have the garden for themselves or just their household - it was a way of meeting the needs in the community.  I love that, just the thought that even in Washington's day there was a desire to meet the needs of those around him - that is my friends, exactly what Jesus intended our lives to be - an outpouring of oneself in whatever way He has given us, to meet the needs of others. 

Moving on,  from here we went to check into our room because we had a date on the Potomac River.  Hot Rocks had arranged a 3 hour lunch cruise on the Potomac and because of some things it ended up being a 3 hour dinner cruise on the Potomac River in the absolute worst rain yet!! It was a BLAST!  We sat all cozy in our chairs, watched the rain pour down on top of the boat/ship, danced and ate an amazing meal.  It was a Mother's Day cruise and all of these little kids were dressed to the hilt with their mom's, I missed my own but just kept admiring how handsome/beautiful all the little ones looked. 

It's late Sunday night, we have driven about 600+ miles in 3 days and we still have part of a day before we leave.

We get up Monday morning, it is still raining.  Not as bad as Sunday night but bad enough to get you very wet.  We decide to try to take the bus/Muni to the White House.  I know that everyone has seen the White House, but, you haven't seen ME in front of the White House - so for your viewing pleasure.

Next stop, the Library of Congress. 

The Capitol is right across from it (under construction).

You cannot go into the "Reading Room" unless you are on a docent led tour or have a library card.  To have a library card, you need to be researching something.

Guess who ends up with a library card?  Ole Smarty-Pants Hot Rocks.  I was jealous.  I just wanted to gaze upon one of the 6,000+ books that Jefferson donated from his own library, to restart the LOC after a fire destroyed what was there previously.  Looking through old books brings a warmth to my heart.  I love to read them.  I love when my kids want to read them. 

Off to, Lincoln Memorial next.  I always obey my Mom (LOL - feel free to get off the floor from laughter) and this time was no different.  Love you!  At her recommendation, I stood at different angles all around the Lincoln statue and sure enough no matter where you stand he looks like he is looking right at you!  Hot Rocks and I had fun with that one.  In order for a sculptor to do that though is simply amazing.

 

We walked through the Korean War Memorial. There were 3 Veterans there and as I looked  at the men's faces you could see their eyes tearing up.  I felt honored to be standing with them there.  Freedom is not free -  It does cost  - whether a person agrees with war or not, it is still payed with the lives of others and that sacrifice, I believe,  deserves the respect of others.  I'm getting choked up again, so with that, we better end this trip!

We found the airport, boarded our plane, our luggage wasn't lost and we returned home safely!  That was our 4 day, over 700 mile trip, to VA/D.C.!  If you go, I hope you have as much fun as we did!

MIA sort of...

that is.  It always seems like when May rolls around the calendar becomes a jostling mess.  As you put things on it the month prior, you think "Oh, it looks like it will be a decent month with time to get some things done around the house."  Can I just tell you that that NEVER happens around our house?  I don't know how people get away with it, but we don't.

The first weekend Rob had his 10K run - he did get and we survived.  This past weekend Rob and I were in Virginia and Washington D.C.  We went back for Rob's graduation, you know, the smarty-pants in the family.  It rained every day BUT the day that we sat outside with 19,999 other people for the Commencement Ceremony. 

This is usually how life rolls for us when we are somewhere:

We take the red-eye flight and arrive in D.C. at 5am (O' too early).  Get our rental car and head down to Virginia.  We decide to take in a few sights on the way.  The first being where the Battle of Bull Run took place.  It was raining so we decide not to go out onto the Battle Field. 

Next stop, Montpelier where James & Dolley Madison lived. 

They are in the process of renovating the home to the original plans but we still popped in for a quick tour; unfortunately we had to leave the group before completing the tour to get to our "room".  We left via the garden.

We stopped at the local Wal-Mart picked up a couple of sleeping bags for our "room" -  a great little KOA outside Charlottesville, VA.  This is where we rented a cute little cabin for a couple of nights. 

That evening was his Baccalaureate.  Dr. Tim LaHaye was the main speaker and it still rained BUT we were inside so that was OK with us.  It is now O' too late at night and we need to drive an hour back to our cabin and wake up at O' too early again for the Commencement Ceremony.

This is my handsome man, lacking his gold honor cord, but handsome none the less prior to walking on the field.

This is what the field looked like....

and this....

and this...

The speaker was Chuck Norris.  My kids and father-in-law love Chuck Norris. All of them watching the re-runs of Walker Texas Ranger is a given on any day of the week.

Well, what does any normal family do after the Commencement Ceremony?  They completely lose each other for over an hour amidst 20K people - yeah, no game plan there.  We end up missing where he would walk on stage to receive a handshake, good job, any type of special recognition for making it this far.  So we take it in stride and decide to go to Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello.

Beautiful isn't it?  To be able to have a 1/4 of a garden like this would be divine!

You can't just go to Montpelier and Monticello without seeing their bud, James Monroe (Ash-Lawn Highland).  He is just down the way from Monticello. Here's the driveway up to Monroe's place..

Look at his garden! I forgot to take more pictures of his place.

Are you getting a sense of what I was looking at this trip???

Our need for caffeine was becoming evident to us so we stumbled upon this WONDERFUL coffee shop in Charlottesville.

All I can say is if you are ever there for some random thing, you MUST stop by Shenandoah Joe.  One of the roasters was there making the drinks and all I can say is I love to talk with the roasters. 

They are so passionate about what they do and making the perfect cup of coffee for everyone - it really makes or breaks the atmosphere of a place. (They are going under the Fav Cup O' Joe's section of my blog!

You can't go to Monticello without going to University of Virginia too.  You know, Jefferson founded/designed the place and if you look close to the small details that are on his house... they are on the buildings of the University.  We sat on the steps and admired for a while and talked about how, if he were alive today, what he would think about this place now. 

This was a cool church on the premises.

Oh, Edgar Allen Poe was here too.

After the University, we headed downtown for a bite to eat.  That was the first 2 days of our trip.  I'm tired just from typing about it so, I'll fill you in on the next two days tomorrow and hopefully, I will have some photo albums for you to gaze into.

Happy Trails!

Returning to his roots

You know nothing is ever normal around here.  In true Cookman fun, Hot Rocks has taken up a new/old hobby.  He has run over the years to keep in shape not in a super dedicated fashion, but as more of a sporadic kind. In view of that Cookman fun, he has run in a couple of events these past 2 weekends.

I didn't take any pixs of the first one in April - I used his cell phone to video it and I am screamin' like a banshee on it as he is crossing the finish line.  I will spare you the video because the screaming is ridiculous.

Then there is this weekend.  There were 2 runs going on a 5K and a 10K.  Please hear me out when I say that a runner's world is a different kind of world.  There are the dog runners, the super-mom with strollers runners, there are the group runners, the speed walkers, the wrist -clock- timed runners, the "I can't believe you are old enough to be my grandparent" runners (these are the ones that you don't want to be behind when you are crossing the finish line... because it makes you feel like what the dog's leave on the trail during the run!) Yes, a very amazing group of people.  Hot Rocks has now entered this group.  I don't know how prepared we are for this.

I have bunny trailed let me return to the track....that super fit hubby of mine accomplished the 10K in 52mins 50 seconds! He wasn't in the top 3 but hey the guy finished the race and he was able to raise over $500 for the Children's Hospital in Oakland to boot!

Here he is before the race.

We didn't get a pix of him finishing the race because we were at the WRONG finish line!!!  When we finally realized that we were at the WRONG finish line we went over to the correct one.  What happened in the following hours completely exhausted me for the rest of the day.  Let's just say that someone wanted to film their Dad a little before the finish line and ended up walking 2.5 miles down the trail to find him without telling their mother that they were going to do that. After 45 mins of searching, the police being contacted, the husband being located, prayers being said continually while thoughts of the child filming his own death in a ditch somewhere and the unnamed child being recovered - I was emotionally drained.  I don't know how well we will do as a "Runner's" family.

But hey, Hot Rocks finished the race and we all survived!  That sounds encouraging!