Camp Loma Mar

When I was first driving there, I almost started crying when I first saw the ocean. I miss it so much and it's so beautiful. It takes the breath away to stand and listen to the waves and feel the sea breeze in your face.

I didn't take enough pictures. But here's a few from the beautiful two days I spent at Camp Loma Mar with the 6th graders. These are from the day we were out at the beach of Half Moon Bay.

Tidepooling. Snails, hermit crabs, sea anemones, crabs, seaweed...

The rocks were fun. For about five minutes there were whales breaching a couple hundred feet offshore. It was awesome! I've never seen them in the wild before! Too bad my dinky camera couldn't have captured them. I'll try to get pictures from the other teachers.

We had lunch sitting on these 'ice plants' that aren't native and some bozo brought in to stabilize the sand dunes. It's taking over the landscape. It was awesome to sit on, much like sponges. I wouldn't mind sleeping on top of it. If you look really close you can see all the white dots - there's a gull convention going on down on the beach.

After the beach we trekked across a big bridge to see the marshes. The creek estuary was amazing and trailed along until it entered this cave to get to the ocean.

I've decided I never want to hike on sand again, my ankles are killing me!

At the end of this marsh walk we came across 'Talking Eudora' who talks if you listen really quietly with your ear up to her branches. She was lots of fun to climb in!

The Door

Back when we lived in Everett our cats used to dig and howl at our closed bedroom door trying to get in. When sometimes yelling and throwing things at the door didn't scare them away, Ian would go up to the door and pound on it really loud to scare them away (it usually worked for about 10 minutes). We learned to coat the floor and door and door jam with plastic to keep them from damaging the apartment, and it's worked. They leave the door alone now.

Last Sunday night I was doodling around getting ready for a trip to the coast with the 6th graders to Camp Loma Mar. Ian had gone to bed, and instead of shutting the hall light off he closed the bedroom door to block the light. I was finally done packing and was approaching the bedroom door to come to bed. I was about 4 feet from it, Mande meowed at me from about half way to the door when all of a sudden KABAAM!

I just about jumped out of my skin, Mande ran for it and I'm battling being furious and trying to figure out why Ian had hit the door so hard, Mande had not been scratching at it. After a few seconds the door opened and Ian blinked into the light. I asked him an exasperated and angry question. He was exasperated back at me because he had actually run INTO the door, forgetting in his sleep that he had closed it, on his way to the bathroom.

After I calmed down I was almost rolling on the floor laughing (he didn't appreciate it very much) at the irony of it. We were all right there at the same time. Poor Ian, the door got his nose and knees pretty good. Even now I'm chuckling.

Thanksgiving

Ian and I were invited to Nicholas and Linnea's for Thanksgiving. We ate WELL!
After dinner we went for a walk in the arboretum and saw the ducks.

But then...someone lost the frisbee into the duck pond...and it was lots of fun to see the men figure out how to get it back.

We ALMOST lost Nicholas into the icky duck pond!
They ended up getting two branches and tying them together with Ian's shoelace.

It was an adventurous evening. Then we all went back to their place and had dessert!

Measured Voices

I loved this! The church sent out this publication to show there are many out there that are also outraged by the persecution of Mormons over Prop 8 besides the Mormons, even those who were against it. And how insensible it all is.
http://www.newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/measured-voices-provide-reason-support-amidst-proposition-8-reaction

Certificate

Here it is.

Adoption

Ian and I finally sent the initial application in to LDS Family Services for adoption this week. It's a long and arduous process, but we want to get started now since it's been nothing but headaches trying to grow our family ourselves. For all we know we may be actually pregnant before things start getting under way, but the more open doors the better! I have about 5 more months before I'm cleared from the molar pregnancy last August.

By the way, I don't want continual queries about how the process is going for us, I just wanted to let our friends and family know that we are taking action.

More Blessings

Did I mention that it's STILL warm in California? Sacramento valley, to be exact. I keep hearing about snow and seeing pictures of people making snowmen, and I think it was around 65 degrees in Winters today. Ahhh, I love it. Given, I have had to wear a jacket to work a couple times the last few weeks, but that's it.

So, I said a couple months ago that I was LOVING my job. I still get a lot out of it, but I've been getting exhausted and burnt out. How long can you work 11 hour days (only paid for 7) just to try to tread water and keep the positive attitude? I have never felt caught up on the billion things I'm supposed to be doing. I swear my job should be 1.5 people if not 2!

I just had a four day weekend, which was lovely (I finally started going to the water aerobics class I've been ogling at). When I walked into work the first day back I found a note in my box:

How cool is that?

Wow, just when I was starting to feel overworked and undervalued! That really brightened my day. I wanted to share my happy thought.

Love ya!