Preparing for Rain

Fall is here. Cloudy skies are already becoming a daily occurrance. I actually welcome it. It's a sign the seasons are changing. Time for sweaters, galoshes, scarves and umbrellas. Living in the lush Pacific Northwest, we endure much rain. My anti-humidity/frizz shampoos and serums and CHI iron get LOTS of use. My scarves come out and are a daily wardrobe staple. I *adore* scarves. I've yet to aquire a pashmina. I'm not sure why- I keep saying I'm going to, but I haven't as of yet. I'd love one in each of these colors: petal pink, black and a deep grape/plum color. J.CREW has a scarf (or two!) I'd love as well.

It's a navy/yellow stripe cashmere. Love the "prep" factor of this- plus, I'm a sucker for yellow lately. Bright, sunny, egg yolk yellow. Love it.


Another staple I'd like to have a few of.... cute umbrellas. They're necessary, so why not have fun with them? I've found a few for Josie. We have a little umbrella holder for hers (really just a yellow mesh mini-wastebasket). I'd like to find a great umbrella stand for mine as well, and then a few cute 'brellies sitting inside as well! Here's some fabulous ones at PARE UMBRELLA. A little spendy, but wonderful all the same.

Aren't they?! At $85 they very well SHOULD be.

XOXO

~S

Foul Play Friday?

Ahhh.
I awoke this morning to cool, misty air and overcast skies. Birds were chirping- but it seemed subdued. The grass had beads of moisture from the shower overnight. And then.
I heard car doors being opened/shut. I peered out the window and saw a line of cars along the street. It was only a few minutes after 8, so what could this be?? A lane of garage sales RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET from me! I put the coffee pot on, then meandered over with the kids. We didn't find much. Just a few summery shirts for Josie next season and a faux-American Girl with a bag full of outfits, shoes,etc.
She's a little beat up but I'm going to help Josie clean her up and we've discussed the fact that if she can take care of this doll, we'll seriously consider a "REAL" one for Christmas. Suffice it to say, she's taking this VERY seriously. In cleaning up the doll, we discovered that one of her fingers of her right hand was neatly cut off. No gnaw marks. No other signs of foul play beyond some hair pulling. Perhaps she owed someone else residing in the toybox money?? One could only propose.. that after the horrific loss of a digit, she quickly packed up and threw herself into the garage sale pile for a hopeful exit, bravely putting on a smile. And we rescued her! Of course, poor thing- it's only a matter of time before "they" may discover she's only just across the street. Eeep!

We're HOME!

Ahhhh....
We're home from SoCal!
Disneyland was magical as always and seeing it through the kids' eyes was the BEST.
Their enchantment and awe stirs the heart and makes us remember when WE felt that way as a kid. LOVE that.
The lines were virtually non-existent with the exception of NEMO. We should've taken the 1.5 hr wait first thing in the morning because it only worsened as the day wore on. So we never got that one in.
Josie hated Indiana Jones and she braved her way through two bouts of Tower of Terror but definitely didn't enjoy it. lol.
Matthew went on EVERYthing he could and especially enjoyed California Screamin' & Tower of Terror.
Despite our fun in Disneyland-- the best part of the trip was most definitely our time in San Diego. We stayed with our good friends, Ken & Christy. Their hospitality was WONDERFUL and we were blessed to be able to crash there and spend time with them.

Ken & Christy- Thank you for all your generousity! Your home, your time, your food, your FLEXIBILITY with our crazy and often confusing "schedule of events" everyday. You guys are SUCH a blessing to us and we are lucky to call you life-long friends. Hotel Berkhouse ranks #1 with the Freeman family!

While in San Diego we got in numerous visits with Robert's grandparents & extended family that came for a special visit one afternoon. We went to the beach a couple times, romped around Mission Bay, Coronado, La Jolla.... all our old "haunts". A high priority was IN & OUT and RUBIOS. And we also visited CORVETTES again, which is always fun. Although this time their a/c wasn't working properly and the place was PACKED= not QUITE as fun as it could've been. The kids had a blast though. Josie lost her first tooth on our way to Disneyland!! She was THRILLED and just a *little* triumphant after all the wiggling/working she'd been doing on that poor little tooth!

Christy took me shopping at Fashion Valley (LOVE it!) and to a few of her favorite scrapbook stores around the area. Wish we'd had more shopping time but what we DID have was fabulous. I brought back a few things but it's probably a blessing that I didn't have alot of room in the car to bring loot back home...we could've gotten into trouble! She also took me to Original House of Pancakes for breakfast and MAN-O-MAN... it was soooooo delish!! I think we have one in Salem but I haven't been before. She had raved about it before and so I was naturally curious. I *LOVE* going out for breakfast, be it morning, noon or night! And this place didn't disappoint at ALL. We sat, eating delish food and sipping on amazing coffee and talked and talked and TALKED. We were both so happy to finally get to be doing what we'd always talked about-- shop together, go out to eat- just the two of us- and just talk and enjoy each others company. I could REALLY get used to that, C.

I'm leaving out all sorts of details and events, but suffice it to say- we had a great time and plan on going back down in a year or two!

And...now we're back home and getting back into the grind of "normal" life. This week is all about creating a new routing/schedule and then next week we start school! The day we got back (after driving straight through from Anaheim, arriving in our sleepy town at 5:45am) I was so tired but it felt GOOD to be home. I unpacked the suitcases and started laundry, watered flowers, went through all the mail that accumulated while we were gone. Visited with my parents when they dropped Pepper off (Thanks Again, Mom & Dad!! Love you!). Then later that night I had my first meeting with other homeschool moms at our church. What a FUN time!! There's such a variety of personalities in our group- but everyone is so nice and encouraging. We have people who've been doing it a long time and many of us who are just jumping in... so we got in lots of questions/sharing. Plus the fellowship with them was just a blessing. Coffee and good conversation with women who share common life situations/interests... we're meeting once a month at Shari's~ something to look forward to!!

More later.. just wanted to drop in and say "Hey!" and fill you in a bit!

xoxo

~S