A continuation of snippets from our life

Cassie has been taking ballroom dancing and etiquette lessons with Bobby Burgess and his Cotillion. She loves it, but I think it has to do with the party dresses that her mother has to supply her with. Here she is dancing with Mr. Bobby (the Mouseketeer and Lawrence Welk dancer) Burgess. She's learning all the traditional dance steps and has to dance with boys ("ewwww Mom - boys are on a different planet than me") her own age normally, but sometimes there are more girls than boys and the men step in to dance with the girlies.

We had LOTS of rain this season. The first big rainstorm brought this fun surprise to our area. This is what happens when your city gets a brand new pump for their fancy smancy drainage and forgets to check to see if the electricity to it is hooked up properly. This was taken after the water, which incidentally also brought cool water spouts and a mini-tornado and rained sideways in 60+ mph wind, had gone down a bit and I thought of getting my camera. It was pure river streets for blocks and the college kids in the area brought out their skimboards and were having a great time. We joke that we normally don't get "weather" here, but we had our fill of rain for a few days.

After Christmas we took the kids and one of Cassie's friends up to the cabin for some snow fun. I don't even think I can begin to tell the whole cabin story, but it is the most memorable cabin experience of the past 20 years - hands down. The snow was too deep to drive up to the driveway so we had to park the car about 1/4 mile down the road and hike in. Four kids, all their stuff, food, a portable heater, and snow toys 1/4 up the road and another 1/4 mile up a steep driveway to the cabin. It took a few trips, but we made it and settled in for a little snowman building, sledding, hot dog/corndog roasting, and of course the ever popular s'mores.

Meanwhile someone had reported our van as being suspicious and when the the Fresno County Sheriff's office got there they found the doors unlocked (thanks Jon) and also found his Department of Justice badge in the pocket of the door. Lets just say that all hell broke out just 1/2 a mile away from us and we were blissfully unaware.

They sent the Long Beach police to check on our home in Long Beach and when nobody was home there they became even more alarmed. Sometime around midnight the weekend of New Year's the Sheriff's Office called the #2 guy at the Attorney General's office and said something like this, "We found the abandoned vehicle of one of your missing Deputy Attorney Generals from Los Angeles in a remote location in the mountains above Fresno. Do you want us to search for him and his family?" Sounds ominous in the middle of the night doesn't it? Phone calls were made (after midnight remember)and a search party was organized for the morning. Meanwhile Department of Justice sends out their own investigators to our car and another to our house in Long Beach in the morning. The guy in Long Beach wants to go inside our house, but doesn't have the authority too so he calls the LBPD and 4 squad cars show up. They find our side door unlocked because my dad was in the middle of installing our new microwave and now they are all up in arms. No less than 6 cops go into our house with guns drawn to check to see if there is a crime scene anywhere inside.

Side note - always clean your house before you leave on vacation because you just never know who will see it while you are gone.

My neighbor sees all the commotion and goes to get my parents. They arrive just as the police are coming out of the house. They try to tell the police that we aren't missing and are up a cabin in Dinkey Creek without cell reception and that we're all fine. Nobody really believes them and they keep questioning and asking how they are related to the missing Deputy Attorney.

Meanwhile back in the mountains a search party is assembling by our car. They bring in the Forest Rangers to help them make a grid map for the search. They also decide to bring in a helicopter to help with the search.

The Klines are at this very moment sledding and making a lot of noise about 1/2 mile away while Rebecca is bringing in more wood to the cozy little cabin.

The Forest Ranger arrives on the scene and says, "this doesn't look suspicious to me. Hmmm . . . did you ask the folks in the cabin around the corner if they know anything?" I can almost imagine the dumbfounded looks on the sheriffs as they answer, "What cabin? There aren't any cabins around!" The ranger says, "There's a group of cabins just around the corner. Let me go see if they know anything." He then walks around the bend and follows the hundreds of footprints in the snow which takes him the first cabin with smoke billowing out of the chimney and he finds us.

When he confirmed that we were indeed the lost party from the Department of Justice he immediately got on the radio and called off the aerial search that was about to take off. The Fresno County Sheriff Office wouldn't take the Forest Ranger's word that we were find and dandy and so a few minutes later they send up one of their deputies to see us in person.

All I can say is What A Mess!!!!! Sorry taxpayers - we never meant to be determined to be missing!

Way to long

No excuses, it's been too long since I posted. I'm going to try to be better about it from now on, but here is a quick picture recap of what we've been up to the last few months.

Cassie and Jeremy were in "The Velvateen Rabbit" through their school. Cassie has been involved with the plays every year since she was in first grade and it was so fun to have both of them in together. Jeremy was the smallest of the toy soldiers (the others were in fourth or fifth grade) and Cassie got the role of Mother. They were both wonderful. The sets were awesome and the costumes were out of this world. Cassie was so excited to have a role with lots of lines and I was very proud of her for learning them all. They even cut the Father role out of the play a week or two before it opened and had to rearrange a lot of her lines and staging to fit. She did wonderfully.


We've gone on field trips with Jeremy's class. I got to go with them to the Japanese gardens and had a wonderful time. They made beautiful fans and were taught some oragami. Jeremy's teacher is Japanese and he is learning some Japanese words. If we ever get over there he'll be my go to man if I need to count to ten, greet someone, or say please or thank you.

Cassie has had a great time in fifth grade. She has the same fifth grade teacher that I had when I was at Minni Gant. Their class had a "colonial day" and they could go to school out of uniform if they wore a colonial style costume. We just love to play dress up and luckily I didn't have to sew this one (like I've had to do the last few years).

Jeremy is playing baseball this spring. He's a pretty good hitter and after he's batted a couple of times the other team backs up a little when he comes to the plate. He's loving it and Jon is able to help coach at some of the games. His main coach is a friend of ours and it is fun to have a friend on the team.

Cassie has been playing Spring soccer and is on a traveling team this time. Their games are mostly in either Long Beach or Northern Orange County so we don't have to travel too much, but it sure has been fun. Her skills just keep improving and we enjoy playing a little Family Soccer when we have the chance (until it gets too competitive and people cry - mostly Jon, just kidding)

Puckering Pumpkin Princess

I have a very talented friend - we'll call her "Sarah" because that's her name. Anyway, Sarah has started a photography business and had a "Fall Photo shoot" at her home. I got very excited because last year we did the photos with the babies in the pumpkins at her house. Sarah is multi-talented and even made tutu props for people to use at the shoot. I got a little crafty and made Eliza a pumpkin shirt to wear. Everything was set.

The perfect weather

The leaves on the ground

The pumpkins placed

The clothing selected

And then . . .

Eliza wouldn't smile.

Oh well, here's to personality!

Midnight Harry Potter

Cassie was really excited about a certain movie opening this week. She even re-read the book in preparation for the event. She heard about the midnight showings of it and asked if we could go. I replied "Are you crazy? That is sooo VERY much past your bed-time. The movie will be there next week when we can go." She was a little sad that we weren't going to be going that weekend.

Little did she know when I let her fall asleep in my bed that I had already bought tickets for the midnight viewing of it. She was told that she had to go to bed early because we were having friends over early the next morning. At 11:00pm Jon and I went into our bedroom and turned on the lights and told her that she needed to wake up and get dressed. We explained that it was almost "tomorrow" and tomorrow was when Harry Potter opened and that we needed to go get in line to see it.This is what she looked like when she found out we were going to see the midnight showing after-all.

OK, so when you don't get in line by 10:00pm for a show that has 16 sold-out screens at midnight you end up near the back of the line. We weren't worried. We bought our snacks ahead of time and waited in line with them. (bad idea giving Cassie soda before a 2 1/2 hour long movie I'd later find out)

My mom came with us - I'm glad my mom is always up for a fun adventure. She's so cool.The end of the line meant that the seats that we got together were in the VERY front row. On the very far edge too, mind you! At least we were together. Cassie thought it was great that we were in the very front row. Nana and I were just grateful to be sitting together. I think it's been many years since I sat that close to the big screen. While we were watching the previews she saw a preview for another movie from a series of books that she devoured this last year. She now wants to go to the midnight showing of that one too. I'm so grateful for this great girl. She's super smart and lots of fun to be around. I love hanging out with her and surprising her.

Kabobs

Aren't these the cutest things you've ever seen? I've been making all sorts of "food on stick" lately, but these are by far the best looking. I did squish a few little hearts in the begining, but now I've got the hang of it.

I haven't taken pictures of my savory varieties, but those are super yummy too. Summer time is all about eating fun food and what is more fun than food on a stick?

We have a swimmer

I finally feel comfortable calling Jeremy a swimmer. Last year and at the beginning of this summer we were calling him a "non-drowner" but not exactly a swimmer.

He's been at 49er camp (run through Cal State Long Beach) for four weeks straight these past weeks. Friday was his last day and parents were invited to come and see their progress. He's been learning archery and he almost got a bull's eye, soccer, basketball, gymnastics, and playground games (dodge ball being his favorite). They keep them running and busy for 4 hours a day, but the most impressive part of the day for me was watching him swim.

He loved his lessons and they were the favorite part of the day is his day. He especially liked the free swim time after. I was so proud of his progress over the last few weeks.

Jon and I joke that if he swam any slower that he'd be swimming backwards, but it's a start. He's very happy with himself. He's ALWAYS loved the water and has never had any fear of putting his face in (or walking into a pool completely) and finally he's swimming.

He's growing up so fast. Now he can read, ride a two-wheeler and swim all on his own. I'm afraid that the next step is going to be driving . . . and I've seen him on Autopia at Disneyland . . . stay off the sidewalks when that happens (it's a good thing I'm giving you an 11 year warning)

I went looking for my sunglasses . . .

and found them here.