a bag of chips

My good boy.

Today Aidan, on the eve of his fifth birthday, had a remarkable day at school.  I found this from his teacher in his folder this afternoon:

"Aidan had a fabulous day!  He was an excellent listener and followed all of my directions.  Another child was trying to get him to make bad choices and he refused.  He was also very helpful to the other children today.  I told him that mom would definitely dance today.  =) Miss Graham"

I nearly cried when I read this.  I had seen a note in the sign-out sheet that there was a note in his folder and I feared the worst.  He's had some trying days and we've been working very hard, along with his teachers, to modify his behavior, to be friendlier and a better listener.  And today the proof was there that our hard work, especially Aidan's, is paying off.  His days have been getting better and today was the best.  My cup runneth over.

(When Aidan and Makena have good days at school, I do a silly crazy dance.  I have a special, highly embarrassing (for whom, you ask?) dance I do for each of them.  Aidan's is more like Elaine's "full body dry heave", and Makena's is like Cameron Diaz in "Charlie's Angels - Full Throttle".  Yeah, that last one goes over really well with the nuns at the school.)

We are so proud of our good boy.

Comic relief.

Some of you may not know that I'm married to a man from Trinidad and Tobago.  And just in case you don't know where the heck Trinidad is, you can find it here:  where the heck is Trinidad and Tobago.  And just in case you want a peek at what Trinis are like, watch this:  Jean Paul.

(Sorry I don't have the YouTube window - I suck at this kind of thing.  If anyone out there can clue me in, I'd appreciate it.)

Prayers needed. Please.

We live in San Diego, one of the areas of Southern California hard hit by wildfires that started yesterday.  As I write this, nearly half a million people have been manditorily evacuated from their homes.  That's more than 15% of the entire population of San Diego County.  Freeways are closed.  Schools are closed, businesses are closed.  It's nearly impossible to breathe outside and ash is covering my car and my yard.  Power is going out around the county and we've been asked not to use our cell phones.

Today is the fourth anniversary of bringing Aidan home from Haiti, and in a few days it will be the fourth anniversary of the Cedar fire which killed 15 people, burned over 280,000 acres and destroyed 2,820 homes and buildings.  The Cedar fire got to within about five crow's miles of our neighborhood and the day I saw burning embers landing in my back yard was the day we hauled ass out of San Diego and sought refuge at my mom's house in Orange County.

San Diego's fire officials are saying that the fires that rage here today will be more devastating than the fires four years ago.  I can't even wrap my mind around this. 

At this time, we are not in any danger.  We live in the Clairemont area of San Diego, just east and a skip north of SeaWorld.  It's not hard to do, though, with six or more different fires now burning here to feel unsafe and exposed and helpless.  Most of our major freeways out of the area are closed or so covered in smoke as to be dangerous to drive so our options - and the options of our 3,000,000 neighbors and friends - are limited. 

I was first aware of the start of fires when I received a call yesterday from a photography client in Ramona that it was windy at her home and she was going to see if her husband wanted to cancel or relocate their shoot.  She put the phone down and seconds later I heard her say something in the background and then she got back on the phone and said there was dark smoke and ash in her backyard and that we'd have to cancel.  They are a family of five - three kids five and under - and have pets and horses.  I can't imagine what they are going through right now.  Now multiply this scene by hundreds of thousands of people.  Un-freaking-believable.

So, please, pray for Southern California.  There are very few areas not affected by the fires in some way, whether by loss of property, evacuation or by the choking smoke and ash.   

Please pray for our firefighters, military personnel, and police as they work to protect and serve.

Mini albums.

I love mini albums.  I love what Ali does with minis and all the Garden Girls at 2Peas never cease to inspire.  But I've only made a few of them.  A sad, tiny, pathetic few of them.  I made a few for my mom, one each of Makena and Aidan.  Still haven't done one for her of Nadia.  I made a wedding album (which can be found in the Simple Scrapbooks Album Shortcuts special issue), and I've been making a mini for Nadia's birthmother of Nadia's first year (which I still haven't finished).  I'm also making wee mini album of Makena with her "twin" BFF Katie.  Three finished mini albums and two still in process.

So when I was printing out some photos from our most recent trip to Carpinteria, I decided to print photos from all of our trips up there this year.  And I made a whole entire album.  Here are some peeks and what I did:

So there are a few random pages from the album.  I used a Maya Road album (loved it) and a bunch of random stuff from my stash.  I found that as I created the album, my page designs got simpler. Funny how that works.

Other than that, I've been busy with my photography business and getting some assignments completed for Simple.  And this weekend will be quite busy as well.  A birthday party in the OC for my little bro tomorrow and two photo shoots on Sunday.

Have a great weekend! 

Where did the week go?

The time warp that is my life has struck again.  Days run together like a pack of dogs, nipping at my ankles and knocking stuff off tables.  Sheesh.

Since I can't remember much of the earlier part of the week, I'll talk about what I can recall.  On Thursday after picking the kids up from school, we headed over the Balboa Park for a little something different.  The organ pavilion is one of my favorite spots in the Park.  Makena and Aidan had fun running around and in and out of all the benches, and since I'm a huge fan of wearing the kids out so they'll beg for bedtime, who was I to slow them down?  Miss Nadia has grown so accustomed to The Bigs' craziness that she was blissfully munching on Fruity Cheerios during most of our brief little adventure.

On Friday I went on a cooking binge, making a huge lasagna (love that Pioneer Woman) and trying out a shepherd's pie recipe from Real Simple magazine which, since I can't find it online, I'll regurgitate write it out below for you:

1 lb ground beef, browned

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1/3 c ketchup

8 oz frozen veggies, thawed

16 oz package frozen and thawed mashed potatoes

Add Worcestershire sauce, ketchup and thawed veggies to browned beef and cook for one minute or so.  Add to oven-safe dish and cover with mashed potatoes. Bake about 10 minutes in 400 degree oven.

I love both of these recipes and so does my man.  (The Bigs won't eat anything that doesn't begin with chicken and end with nuggets.)  I cheat on the lasagna by using uncooked noodles which turns out beautifully and saves the hassle of boiling stuff.  I also add a layer of spinach for the added nutrition.  For the shepherd's pie, I added a bit more ketchup and a splash more Worcestershire sauce than the recipe called for, and I bought the Country Crock mashed potatoes in the I-can't-cook-worth-a-damn-so-I'll-buy-this-premade-crap section of my store which I frequent and they worked beautifully since I couldn't find the frozen kind and heaven forbid I boil and mash my own damn taters.  I mean this recipe is all about convenience, right?

And then today it rained.  (Insert singing angels here.)  Glorious rain, a chill in the air, puddles for jumping, mud for tracking through my house.  It was such a beautiful, lazy morning, sitting inside with my husband, Nadia playing and jabbering noisily at our feet, watching the big kids play outside with their colorful character umbrellas.  A perfect day for hot coffee and a big heaping bowl of leftover shepherd's pie for lunch, curled up on the couch watching HGTV.  Ahhhhh.

Today is also my grandmother's birthday.  She is 82 years young and is the loveliest woman I know.  She is charming and classy, sweet and kind, gentle and loving.  Always has been, always will be.  Happy birthday, grandma.  I love you.

Weekend recap.

Life would not be an adventure if everything went according to plan. Going with the flow and being open to the new possibilities that a change of plans brings is key to enjoying the adventure. Like when I show up 45 minutes before my train is due to get my boarding pass only to find out that my train has been delayed by an hour and a half. And what's even funnier is that as I'm at the ticket window hearing this news, my phone rings and it's Amtrak reservations calling me to let me know that my train has been delayed. I had a good laugh at that one.

So after thinking over my options (hang out in a train station for two hours with a one-year-old and lots of strangers or get in my car and just drive to Carpinteria), I get a refund on my train ticket and head back out to the car.  The drive is long but traffic is thankfully pretty light, and we arrive in Carp at just about the time my train was originally supposed to arrive.

The first thing we do is walk two blocks to the Thursday farmer's market:

I love me a farmer's market. I feel closer to nature and I appreciate the effort to bring food to market when I see it displayed under blue tarps that flap in the wind and presented in cardboard boxes which sit on worn portable tables or the bed of a truck. The grapes were dusty from the previous day's wind but are plump and an incredible deep purple, and the tomatoes were big and fat and totally unlike anything you see in a supermarket.  The flowers were vibrant and fragrant.  And fresh cookies and breads that make my backside bounce happily with carbohydrate promises.  The fresh-baked macaroons I bought were as if a coconut exploded in my mouth. Total heaven. Things just taste and look better at a farmer's market.

On Friday Nadia and I continued our mommy-and-me adventure.  We headed out Hwy 154 to the Gainey Winery.  It was a windy but incredibly clear and vivid fall day, and what better way to appreciate that kind of weather than walking through a vineyard heavy with fruit.  Just outside the tasting room, and to my happy surprise, I found an educational area which demonstrated the several ways of staking and pruning and growing and training grapevines. I love wine, and I'm not a connoisseur by a long shot, but I'm fascinated by the grape-growing and wine-making process.  I love the chemistry, the history, the religion of wine.

Then after our winery adventure we drove out Hwy 246 to where it met up with Hwy 1 and then headed back to the East. I love to drive and I especially love to drive through the sparsely populated rolling golden hills of Central Coastal California.  I feel so peaceful and quiet and so ready to give up city life for an acre (or twenty) of golden rollies of my own with cows and chickens and a fresh herb garden, and maybe a small vineyard.  Nadia seemed to like it there, too, babbling quietly in the back seat, looking around, playing peek-a-boo with me now and then in the rear-view mirror.

We eventually made it back to the 101 and within minutes of being on the freeway I spotted an exit to Gaviota State Park and decided to turn off.  They cute young dude at the booth let me through without paying and I took photos of the railroad trestle and of a seagull atop a lifeguard tower.  It was very windy at the beach and hardly anyone was about.  And I could see for miles.

At around six o'clock Friday night, Chris and The Bigs arrived, road-weary but excited to be in Carpinteria.  We headed out for dinner and a walk through the Avocado Festival which, at that time of night, was mostly loud rock bands and a rowdy, beer-soaked crowd of partiers.

On Saturday we all headed back out to the Gainey winery so that Chris and the kids could see what I had been talking about.  The Bigs loved picking and tasting the grapes and then spitting out the seeds.  It made my heart swell to near bursting to watch them run through the grapevines, bunches of grapes in their hands, having a great time as a family.

In all, these are the highlights of our weekend.  Adventures with the ones you love are the best adventures.  And, funny enough, the big draw for us was the Avocado Festival and I did not take a single photo while we were there.  Big crowds and three kids don't make for too many chances to take photos.  But it was nice and fun and there's always tons of yummy things to eat (someone was selling avocado bread) and fun arts and crafts to see and interesting people to watch.  We even got to see some of my family while we were up there.  (Thanks, Chuck and Lesley for brunch, nice to meet you, Eva, and good luck with the book work to Susan and Stan.  Love you!)

So, there's a long post for you with lots of photos, and maybe some fun things to do and see if you're ever in the Santa Barbara area.  Have a lovely week!

Carpinteria or bust.

Tomorrow morning, Nadia and I head up the coast on the train to Carpinteria.  I'm looking forward to the train ride, hoping that my travel companion is able to exhibit just a wee little tiny bit of self control for the five-hour ride up.  Chris and The Bigs will come up on Friday.

Carpinteria's annual Avocado Festival is this weekend and it's good fun.  If your'e in Southern California and are looking for something to do, head on up.  More avocado stuff than you could stick a shake at. Carpinteria is a sweet little coastal town off Hwy 101 between Ventura and Santa Barbara.  Like, totally, dude.  And the Amtrak runs right through it, just blocks from the festival. 

Full details and photos from our excursion and all the avocado loveliness will surely follow early next week.

And how about a photo?  Miss Nadia, this afternoon, in her birthday suit, holding tightly to my lens cap, watching a few minutes of Little Einstein.  Love the lighting on her face.